Audio reveals exchanges between control centre and drivers before deadly Spain train crash
Leaked audio from the minutes before Spain's deadly high-speed train crash reveals a control centre telling a driver to press on at normal speed, even as another train sat stalled on the same line.
Audio recordings published in Spanish media have revealed the final exchanges between train drivers and a railway control centre in the minutes before the deadly crash near Urda, in Spain's Toledo province, in which at least sixty nine people died.
In one recording, a control centre operator tells the driver of a Renfe high-speed train, carrying hundreds of passengers from Madrid towards Seville, to continue at normal speed under a backup signalling procedure after a signalling failure halted trains on the stretch.
The driver is heard asking for confirmation, and the operator confirms. Meanwhile, the driver of an Iryo train about twenty five kilometres ahead reports that his train cannot move, telling the control centre that a safety-system fault is keeping it stopped at the Urda entrance signal.
Moments later, the Renfe train collided with the stationary Iryo train. Spain has declared three days of national mourning, and investigators are examining how the two trains came to be moving on the same line at the same time.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.