Independent commission of inquiry to investigate ‘genuinely strange’ accident

Spain’s Minister of Transport Óscar Puente has described the rail accident that has left at least 39 people dead and dozens seriously injured in Adamuz (Córdoba) as “very strange.” Puente appeared before the media early Monday morning at the facilities of state-owned railway infrastructure manager Adif in Madrid’s Atocha station to report on the circumstances of the derailment, emphasizing that it is “strange, very strange, very difficult to explain at this time.” According to the minister, all the railway experts he spoke with on Sunday night “are extremely baffled” by the accident.

The minister, who will travel to Córdoba in the coming hours, insisted that pointing to a specific cause now would be speculation. He did indicate that the track where the accident occurred was renovated last spring and that the Iryo train “was practically new, less than four years old.” Based on these facts, he announced that an independent commission will be tasked with investigating the incident to clarify what happened.

“At this point, we can’t even speculate on whether it was the rolling stock or the track. We don’t know,” Puente emphasized, reiterating that there is “total curiosity” among the technicians to determine what happened. The minister described the accident as “genuinely strange” given that the equipment is brand new. The rails also belong to “a completely renovated track” on which €700 million has been invested. “Specifically, the replacement of switches and turnouts on that section was completed in May of this year. Therefore, the accident is extremely strange; it happened on a straight stretch [...] We hope that the investigation will help us clarify what happened,” he stated.

The minister explained that the worst of the accident occurred on the Alvia train. “The first two cars of the train bore the brunt of the damage. There were 37 people in the first car and 16 in the second, so 53 people were affected, primarily, out of the 200 who were on board,” he stated. These two cars were the ones that fell down the embankment, and that is where firefighters and civil protection personnel are currently focusing their efforts.

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