Turkey sent its condolences to Spain on Monday following the serious train crash in Adamuz (Cordoba), which has left at least 40 people dead and more than a hundred injured, several of them in critical condition. While every effort is being made to help the victims of the tragedy and their families, the investigation is now focusing on clarifying why a high-speed train derailed on a straight stretch of track.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives as a result of the train crash that occurred yesterday (18 January) in Adamuz, Spain,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on the tragedy, the magnitude of which has also made the headlines of many media outlets in the Eurasian country. The official note added that from Ankara “we extend our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and to the people of Spain, and wish a speedy recovery to the injured”.
The incident occurred yesterday when a train of the private company Iryo, which was covering the route Malaga-Puerta de Atocha and which was travelling with 294 passengers on board, derailed at the turnouts at the entrance to track 1 in Adamuz, invading the adjacent track; barely 20 seconds later, an Alvia train with 184 passengers, which was travelling between Madrid and Huelva, collided with the first one, unleashing a catastrophe.
The provisional toll is 40 dead and 152 injured, according to the latest official report. Late on Monday, 43 people remained hospitalised, 12 in the ICU, of whom nine were in serious condition, according to the Andalusian emergency services. The Spanish transport minister, Óscar Puente, warned however that the death toll “is not definitive”, as it remains to be seen if there are more victims among the wreckage of the Alvia train carriages, which after the impact were thrown off and fell down an embankment.
Experts rule out human error or speeding
“We are going to find the truth,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after visiting the scene of the crash, where he announced three days of official mourning. The Italian company operating the train that derailed first has reported that the last technical check had been carried out only four days before the accident, which reinforces the hypothesis of an infrastructure failure as the most likely cause of the double derailment.
In this regard, Spanish media reported that technicians are now assessing whether a fault in a track joint could have triggered the Iryo derailment , while the president of Renfe – Spain’s state railway company – and several engineers almost completely rule out human error or speeding as the cause of the deadly train crash in Adamuz.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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