Finance
Spain mourns victims as families push for train crash truth
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 29, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 29, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 29, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 29, 2026
Families of Spain train crash victims demand accountability as the nation mourns. The government faces scrutiny over railway safety.
By Miguel Pereira and Guillermo Martinez
HUELVA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Some relatives of the 45 people killed in Spain's rail disaster vowed on Thursday to find out why the two high-speed trains collided, making their promise before survivors still wearing bandages and slings at a funeral mass.
"Only the truth will help us heal this wound. We will know the truth, we will fight so that there will never be another train," Liliana Saenz, who lost her mother, said at the service in the southern city of Huelva. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended.
Spain is trying to come to terms with the January 18 disaster near the village of Adamuz in southern Spain that caused one of the highest death tolls from a train crash in European history.
The government has been scrutinized over whether it has sufficiently invested in maintenance of Spain's vaunted railway system since the crash and other incidents that same week, including the death of a train driver in Catalonia.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Transport Minister Oscar Puente didn't attend the service.
A fracture in the rail appeared to have occurred before one of the trains headed for Madrid from Malaga derailed and was hit by a second, Huelva-bound train coming in the opposite direction 20 seconds later, authorities said. Puente said the gap could have been as short as nine seconds.
"We are the 45 families who would trade all the gold in this world, which is now worthless, for the chance to move the hands of the clock forward just 20 seconds," Saenz, flanked by her brother, told a congregation of hundreds of relatives of the victims and some of the survivors.
(Reporting by Miguel Pereira and Guillermo Martinez; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
A train collision occurs when two or more trains collide, often resulting in significant damage, injuries, or fatalities. It can happen due to various factors, including mechanical failure or human error.
Railway safety refers to the measures and protocols in place to prevent accidents and ensure the safe operation of trains and rail infrastructure. This includes maintenance, signaling systems, and emergency procedures.
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