The accident in the province of Toledo marks the third railway disaster in Spain this year. In January, two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz, in the southern Spanish province of Córdoba, killing more than 40 people. That collision occurred after the tail of a northbound train derailed and crossed onto the adjacent track, where a southbound train was approaching. More than a hundred people were injured, authorities said at the time. That accident also ended the life of one of the train drivers and sparked a nationwide strike to demand greater safety for railway professionals amid a series of accidents throughout Spain. Before that collision, Spain’s train drivers’ union, Semaf, had expressed concerns about high speeds causing vibrations and subsequent wear and tear along high-speed rail lines, a union source told CNN at the time. The Adamuz accident was the worst on Spanish railways since one in Galicia in 2013, when 79 people were killed and 144 injured after a train crashed into a well and burst into flames near the city of Santiago de Compostela. Days after the Adamuz train disaster, a commuter train near Barcelona derailed on a day of heavy rain, killing the driver and injuring dozens of passengers. CNN’s Pau Mosquera, Tim Lister and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.
