Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente announced his resignation after two deadly train accidents occurred in a single year, including one last week that killed 69 people and injured more than 200. “I made the decision about my future in the first minutes after the tragedy,” Puente told lawmakers in Madrid. “A Minister of Transport in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this severity in less than a year, no matter how different they are and regardless of whether or not he has direct responsibility for them.” Puente resigned six days after one train collided with another following what authorities say was a combination of human and computer error along a high-speed rail line connecting Madrid and Andalusia. A train, operated by Spain’s national rail service, crashed into a stopped train at high speed during a safety system failure that had stopped all rail traffic along the line. “There was a red signal prohibiting movement, but the train was authorized to move,” Puente said last week. “It is a decision made under inexplicable circumstances.” Last week’s accident was preceded by another serious train accident in January, when two high-speed trains collided head-on in the city of Adamuz, killing at least 41 people. At the time, it was the deadliest accident Spain had seen in more than a decade. Many politicians and Spain’s transport workers union had called on Puente to resign following last week’s collision. On the night of the accident, police clashed with hundreds of protesters outside the Transport Ministry headquarters, some of whom carried banners demanding the resignation of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Puente’s announcement comes just three weeks before the country’s general elections, in which the minister said he will not run as a candidate. Sánchez called those early elections in the wake of several corruption scandals, a controversy over housing affordability and numerous setbacks for his socialist PSOE party in municipal elections. Sánchez praised Puente in a statement on social media and said the former transportation minister stepped aside “out of respect for the victims and the progressive project.” “Politicians like him dignify our country and show us that we are not all the same,” Sánchez wrote. “While some only give lessons, others give everything.” This is a developing story and will be updated.
