By the end of Cuatro’s En boca de todos broadcast, the programme was reporting an official death toll of 64 after the collision near Urda station in Toledo on 28 October. The crash occurred at about 08:54 and involved a Renfe AVE service bound for Seville and an Iryo train reported to have been stationary on the line. The figure came as presenter Nacho Abad struggled to continue on air.
Abad told viewers that his son had asked him not to travel by train to Marbella that weekend. The personal warning came after hours of coverage, during which relatives of missing passengers called the programme seeking help. Injured survivors also described what they had experienced.
The two trains carried 552 registered passengers in total: EFE reported 378 on the AVE and 174 on the Iryo, including a baby. Early figures reported by EFE put the death toll at 64, with 40 fatalities from the Iryo and 24 from the Renfe train, and 58 injured. Castilla-La Mancha authorities subsequently reported 64 deaths and 80 injured, including 50 people seriously injured. Later updates from Europa Press put the toll at 68 dead and 107 injured people admitted to hospitals in the region; four bodies were still trapped in the wreckage at that point. Rescue teams were still removing wreckage and searching the carriages, and officials warned that the figures could change.
Iñaki, a passenger in a derailed Iryo carriage, said he felt fortunate to have survived. Architect Joaquín Torres was travelling in the fifth carriage of the damaged AVE. He described being trapped in darkness and holding the hand of a woman who died at the scene.
The programme also reported the disappearance of María Giménez, who was travelling in the AVE’s eighth carriage. Her friend Nicolás contacted Abad on air. The broadcast also reported the disappearance of former Labour Minister Fátima Báñez.
The coverage disrupted the networks’ usual television schedules. The collision was described as Spain’s deadliest rail accident since the 2013 Angrois derailment near Santiago de Compostela, which killed 80 people and injured 145. A separate report on Pedro Sánchez’s appearance and its viewing figures is available in an earlier television story.
Abad had to pause the broadcast several times to regain his composure. At sign-off, he was visibly shaken by his son’s request and the accounts from the crash. Regional president Emiliano García-Page expressed his condolences to the families as rescue crews continued working through the wreckage.
