Spain’s Transport Minister Resigns Following Crash of Train that Killed 69 in Urda

Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, resigned Tuesday after a train crash last week near Urda, a town in the center province of Toledo, that left 69 people dead. During the session, Puente defended the safety of the Madrid-Seville high-speed line where the tragedy occured. The blast killed 69 individuals and injured almost 200 more.

It’s not a forgotten piece of infrastructure, nor an abandoned one,” he said, pointing to a €780 million renewal plan announced by the government.

His speech concluded with a farewell: “I trust my country will rise to the occasion. I have tried to live up to that. Good bye. The Urda tragedy comes nine months after a derailment near Adamuz, in the southern province of Cordoba, killed 46 people in January. The disaster also occurred on the Madrid-Seville line.

Puente told MPs the control center operated by Adif, the state-owned rail infrastructure manager, had permitted the AVE high-speed train involved to keep running despite a failure in its LZB automatic safety system. Further down the line a train run by the private business Iryo had halted.

The AVE then went over 25 kilometres at over 160 km/h prior to the crash. Puente defended the dependability of the LZB system and offered new technology to improve rail safety. Vox’s party spokesman, Pepa Millán, blamed Puente for “failing to assume his responsibilities” and condemned his behaviour following the incident. “He has no dignity, no shame,” she said.

The PP and Vox had requested his resignation, and so have two parties whose votes the Sánchez government has relied on: the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Catalan pro-independence party Junts.

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