Juan Ignacio López Espinosa was travelling in seat 17D of carriage 7 on Renfe AVE service 2080 when it collided with Iryo service 6076 near Urda, Toledo. The crash occurred at about 08:53 on Wednesday, 28 October, on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line. The AVE was travelling from Madrid towards Seville, while the Iryo was stopped on the line. The impact derailed several carriages, including the last two Iryo carriages, and sent some vehicles down an embankment. Authorities identified López Espinosa’s body after the crash, which killed 69 people.
He was 63 and was returning to A Coruña, where his wife was from and where they had a daughter together. His family reported him missing that Wednesday and travelled from A Coruña to Toledo. An early report put the death toll at 30; as rescue teams reached more of the wreckage, the Government of Castilla-La Mancha later confirmed 69 deaths. The search for missing passengers was also covered in earlier reporting.
López Espinosa, an architecture graduate from Madrid, worked for a decade as a regional director for a construction company in north-west Spain. He later took a job that required regular travel between Málaga and Galicia. He also graduated in history in 2006.
On the third day of rescue work, the Guardia Civil sent four canine handlers and four dogs back to search the crash site. A canine unit had already covered the area the previous day. Teresa Albacete, the force’s spokesperson, said the aim was to check that no one remained at the site or inside the carriages. The Guardia Civil had also set up four offices to collect information and DNA samples to help identify victims.
Forensic and judicial police units returned to gather evidence as authorities worked to establish the cause of the collision. By Friday afternoon, forensic teams had completed 65 autopsies; families had been notified of 12 identifications, comprising nine men and three women. The Guardia Civil’s Criminalistics Service used fingerprint analysis, while forensic examinations were carried out by institutes in Toledo and Ciudad Real. At the time, the reported death toll stood at 69. Castilla-La Mancha authorities also reported more than 180 injured people, including 18 in very serious condition.
