Trending 
Human error at a control centre caused a catastrophic Spanish rail collision that killed at least 64 people on Wednesday after operators ordered a halted train to resume movement despite an active technical failure.
An automatic control system outage along a 69-kilometre stretch of track had safely stopped all regional traffic, but control centre staff inexplicably authorised a state-operated Renfe train to restart without verifying that the system was restored.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente condemned the decision, stating, “The decision to resume traffic, while that system had not been restored, belongs to the control centre, and the control centre… took the decision to resume traffic in circumstances that, from our point of view, are inexplicable.”
Read More : 64 Killed in Spain Train Collision
The restarted Renfe train travelled 25 kilometres before crashing into a stationary private Iryo train at speeds potentially reaching 200 kilometres per hour.
Puente emphasised that control room personnel had ample opportunity to catch the mistake before impact, noting, “It is clear that, in the control centre, the decision was taken to restart, and then they had more than enough time to verify the error, and they did not fix it.”
The preliminary findings in Castilla-La Mancha threaten to reignite intense public debate surrounding Spain’s rail safety standards following a separate high-speed collision that killed 46 people in January.
