Puente Defends Transport Role Amid 69 Dead in Spain Rail Crash

Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, declared on Friday that he will not step down from his post despite the high-speed rail collision that killed at least 69 people. Speaking at a news conference in Madrid, Puente stated he had "nothing to hide" and emphasized that his current duty is to resolve the operational issues rather than debate his personal position.

The disaster occurred on Wednesday morning near the town of Urda in central Toledo province. A state-operated Renfe train struck the rear of a stationary Iryo train. Investigators reported that the Renfe train was traveling at a speed between 160 kilometers per hour and 200 kilometers per hour at the moment of impact. The force of the crash embedded the front carriage of the moving train into the tail of the stopped vehicle.

Leaked audio recordings between train drivers and Madrid’s control center have complicated the initial explanation. The recordings suggest that one train received clearance to move even though another had stalled approximately 25 kilometers ahead. Puente described the decision to instruct the trains to move without speed restrictions as "inexplicable." He noted that a computer failure at 08:30 that morning caused six moving trains to halt, including the two involved in the crash.

Political pressure to remove Puente has intensified since the accident. The conservative People’s Party and the trade union CSIF have both called for his resignation. Demonstrators gathered outside the transport ministry on Wednesday night to voice their demands. In response, Puente said on Friday that leaving would be the easy option, but it did not align with his character or the prime minister’s expectations.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez acknowledged that public trust in the high-speed rail network had been broken. He called it "unacceptable" that two similar tragedies occurred within a year, noting that a collision on the same Madrid to Seville route killed 46 people in Adamuz in January. Sánchez and other officials are now focused on determining the specific sequence of errors that led to the final collision.

Puente stated that if the investigation confirms human error, the government will act accordingly. He pledged to examine the questions raised by the tragedy one by one. The Spanish government is observing a three-day national mourning period for the victims. Families and survivors are grappling with the sudden loss while officials work to finalize the preliminary findings from the transport investigators.