Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente has announced that he is resigning six days after a high-speed train collision that killed dozens of people. Mr Puente made the announcement on Tuesday, November 3 at the end of an hourslong appearance before lawmakers about the crash in which 69 people lost their lives.
“A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year,” Mr Puente said. He said he had taken the decision to resign immediately after the deadly crash, but had not made it public.
The incident last week occurred when a high-speed train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks.
The chain of events that led to disaster started when the communication system key to the functioning of the security system on the Madrid-Seville line failed.
Central controllers in Madrid took over and gave the go-ahead for a state-operated Renfe high-speed train to proceed. There was a stationary train ahead operated by the company Iryo.
The one train smashed into the other, causing carriages to detail and tumble down an embankment.
The horrific crash on October 28 is the second major crash on the Madrid-Seville line this year.
In January, more than two hours further south along the route, a train derailed and struck another traveling in the opposite direction, killing 46 people. That crash remains under investigation.
The collisions have raised renewed concerns about the safety of the country’s rail network, with the most recent incident taking place just four weeks before a national election.
Spain’s high-speed rail network has been considered one of the country’s crowning achievements. It is the world’s second-largest, after China’s. Until this year, it had not experienced a deadly crash since coming into service over three decades ago.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Puente announced safety measures the government would implement on the rail network, including improving conditions in control centres and pushing for a faster rollout of the standardized European Rail Traffic Management System for safety and signalling.
