Spain: 68 Dead in High-Speed Rail Crash Points to a Systemic Problem

Fox news is all over this one.

Several Americans are believed to have been injured in a high-speed train collision that killed at least 68 people in Spain on Wednesday when one train collided with another that had stopped on the tracks.

The crash took place in Spain's Castilla-La Mancha, with the regional government confirming the death toll and adding that another 58 people required medical treatment in hospitals. Several Americans are believed to have been hurt in the crash, according to the State Department.

Rescue workers continue to search in the wreckage for survivors and bodies, with witnesses describing a gruesome scene.

(Sigh.)  Given I'm the noted railroad fan here at PJ Media, I suppose it falls to me to dig into this event. So, here goes:

According to what I’ve been able to piece together, two high-speed trains collided around 8:53 a.m. local time Wednesday near Urda, in Toledo province, about 150 kilometers south of Madrid. Both were headed the same way, from Madrid to Seville. A train from Renfe, Spain’s state-owned rail company, carrying 397 people, crashed into a train from Iryo, a private operator, carrying 147 people, that had stopped on the track ahead. 

At least 68 people are dead and more than 50 injured. Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in the city of Toledo, about 30 minutes away. Canada’s foreign minister said five Canadians were affected.

The early finger points at the dispatchers, not the equipment, nor the Iryo train.  The line is dispatched by the government. Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the crash “truly unbelievable.” He said the preliminary investigation indicates rail controllers gave an “inexplicable” order letting one train proceed even though a safety failure had halted the other train on the tracks ahead. Officials have described it as a mix of technical and human error. 

This is the second fatal disaster on the same high-speed line in less than a year, involving the same two rail operators.

In January, near Adamuz, outside Córdoba, the rear of an Iryo train derailed onto the adjacent track and was struck by an oncoming Renfe train. The minister called that crash “extremely unusual,” because it happened on a straight stretch of track recently renovated in a €700 million project, and the train was relatively new. Spain’s train drivers’ union had previously raised concerns that high speeds were causing vibration and wear and tear on high-speed lines. The death toll in that crash is reported as 45 or 46, depending on the outlet.

Today’s crash is the deadliest high-speed train crash in Spain since 2013, when a train derailed in Galicia and killed 80 people.

Of course, there’s a political aspect to this, as well. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing a snap election next month. He’s making the noises you’d expect him to make, saying in part that the government would investigate the cause and act “if there has been negligence,” and that Spain must restore confidence in its high-speed rail network. Expect the opposition to make the rail system’s safety record a campaign issue, especially since Renfe and the track operator ADIF are both state-run.

I also expect the investigation to take added time, given the death toll and given this is a second such incident on that line in a year and certainly the deadliest.

Need I say that Spain’s high-speed rail is the one many rail enthusiasts here in the ’States want us to copy?

In fairness, it must be said that the bad rap that mass transit options like planes and trains get in situations like this is a little unfair. A train wreck or plane crash kills dozens of people at once, in one place, on camera, and dominates the news for days. Car crashes kill roughly 40,000 Americans a year, spread out a few at a time, and almost none make the national news. Psychologists call it the availability heuristic: we judge risk by how easily examples come to mind, and the dramatic ones stick.

Then too, it must be said that a lot of this is the mainstream press amping up things, because frankly, fear sells. Alas, there are consequences of that fear as well. After 9/11, a lot of Americans got off planes and into cars. The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer estimated that the shift caused roughly 1,600 extra highway deaths in the year that followed, more than the number of passengers killed on the four hijacked planes. He called it “dread risk.” People fear the rare catastrophe far more than the everyday danger, even when the everyday one is much more likely to kill them.
 
 But all that said, I’m thinking we shouldn’t be quite so quick to let Spain’s government off the hook, here. 

One crash might be a fluke. The second fatal crash in a year seems somewhat less likely to be so, particularly with dispatchers apparently waving a train into an occupied block. It starts to look like a systemic problem, rather than bad luck. The fair way to put it is that rail as a mode is safe, but that doesn’t mean every rail system is well run. Those are two different questions, and the coverage tends to blur them in both directions: “trains are deathtraps” on one side, “nothing to see here” on the other.

Normally, I’d expect further details coming from Madrid in a month or so. But given the upcoming snap election the government faces in less than a month, and the fear that this crash is going to cost the Sánchez government some serious creds he can't afford, I’m thinking we’ll see some added details in somewhat less time... at least before voters go to the polls.

I'll be watching.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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