The provisional death toll after the 28 October collision at Urda was 69, with more than 200 people injured. The crash occurred shortly before 9 a.m. near kilometre marker 118 in Toledo province, on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line. A total of 538 people were travelling on the two trains involved: one operated by Renfe and the other by Iryo.
The Renfe AVE struck the Iryo train, which was stationary on the track. Two Iryo carriages derailed and went down an embankment. Agencia EFE initially reported 64 deaths: 40 aboard the Iryo train and 24 on the Renfe service, with 58 injured passengers receiving medical care. Later updates put the toll at 68, then 69; ABC News reported that an overnight figure of 74 was subsequently revised down to 69.
Iván Romano Ramos, 42, lived in Alcalá de Guadaíra and served in the National Police. The town’s mayor, Ana Isabel Jiménez Contreras, confirmed his death. He had recently become a father.
Alcalá de Guadaíra’s council expressed its condolences to his family and to the relatives of all those killed. It also wished the injured a swift recovery.
Information compiled by Europa Press put Andalusia’s share of the reported deaths at 16. Among them was Fátima Báñez, 59, president of Fundación CEOE and a former Minister of Employment and Social Security in governments led by the PP. She was travelling on the Iryo train, which was struck by a Renfe AVE. Both trains had left Madrid for Seville, where Báñez was due to attend a business event organised by the Andalusian employers’ association.
The victims also included the father of Sevillian actor César Vicente, known for roles in ‘Dolor y gloria’ by Pedro Almodóvar and ‘Los Tigres’ by Alberto Rodríguez. Francisco Vázquez and Curro Vázquez, respectively the son and brother of bullfighter Pablo Aguado’s representative Antonio Vázquez, confirmed Antonio’s death.
José Manuel Chacón, a 31-year-old Guardia Civil officer, was also among the dead. He was one of two officers from Seville reported missing after the crash. Chacón had served for five years in the Judicial Police Technical Unit in Madrid and was travelling to Seville. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a computer malfunction had stopped six trains on the affected section. One train was then allowed to resume its journey and travelled about 25 kilometres before the collision. The exact cause remained under investigation. The crash interrupted high-speed services on the Madrid-Andalusia corridor in both directions. The Urda collision was separate from the flooding-related Catalonia rail disruption covered in an earlier report.
