After the new railway accident on the Madrid-Andalusia AVE line –and let's not forget Gelida– there have generally been –with regrettable exceptions– a few days of prudence out of respect for the dead and to focus energy on assisting the victims and their families. But it is very evident that the repercussions of all kinds from this tragedy will be very strong. Also in the political space and regarding the election date of November 29th. The train crash had just occurred and a government advisor already told me: "This changes everything, we must return to minute zero of the pre-election campaign, we need to rethink what should be done with more perspective, once we know the causes and effects of what has happened". Perhaps the best definition was given to me by a friend when he told me that "what has happened is very infuriating, it is very infuriating because it is unacceptable". And he added: "It cannot be that I with my mobile phone can locate anything and a railway control center cannot do the same with a train".

The Minister of Transport spent two hours this noon answering technical questions about Wednesday's tragic train accident in Toledo which, for the moment, has left 69 people dead. Óscar Puente has guaranteed that he is only obsessed with resolving the crisis, that he has not thought for a moment about the general elections on November 29, and that he has no intention of resigning. "My way of being responsible is by facing the music," he stressed. Sources close to the minister explain that he has placed his position at the disposal of Pedro Sánchez and that the Spanish president has asked him to stay because it would be an "unfair" resignation. Immersed in the electoral context, Puente's figure could harm socialist options, and the same sources admit that he will hardly be a visible face in the campaign.

The Urda train accident this Wednesday, the January disaster in Adamuz, the Ceuta crisis, the DANA in the Valencian Community, the COVID-19 pandemic, or even the summer wildfires. Hundreds of accumulated deaths that Vox has not hesitated to use as a political weapon against the Spanish government. In fact, the far-right formation led by Santiago Abascal depicts an apocalyptic Spain presided over by Pedro Sánchez, who "provokes" or "aggravates" major crises, among other things because he is, in their opinion, a "psychopath," "traitor," "madman," and "bastard." A "son of a bitch," as heard at every Vox rally, even though Abascal prefers not to use this insult.

The tragic train accident in Urda, in the province of Toledo, has resulted in dozens of injured and fatalities. An investigation has now been opened – it corresponds to the civil and instruction section of the Court of First Instance of Orgaz (Toledo), in square number 2 – which, taking into account the precedents of the latest railway accidents, such as the Adamuz accident, is expected to be prolonged over time.

The high-speed accident in Toledo could be an isolated tragedy, but the fact that it occurred only nine months after another fatal crash, the one in Adamuz, multiplies its impact and makes things really very difficult for the Spanish government to convince public opinion, just over four weeks before the elections, that there is no structural problem of management or resources in the railway system. It is true that, with the information available so far, it seems that the two accidents obey completely different causes. In the first case, the derailment was due to a crack in the track, therefore, to a problem with the road infrastructure. And in the second, the safety system, first, and the traffic management from the control center, later, would have failed.

The unfortunate chain of technical failures and human errors that ended in the collision of two high-speed trains in Urda, Toledo, opens up many questions about how it could have happened and what technical factors could explain a disaster of these characteristics. Transport sector expert and director of the Terminus Transport Studies Centre, Joan Carles Salmerón, clarifies technical terms and the main unknowns still surrounding the accident for the ARA. There are six questions to provide context and understand key concepts.

At 8:53 a.m. this Wednesday, two high-speed trains collided between the towns of Mora and Urda, in Toledo. The accident occurred when a Renfe AVE train struck an Iryo train from behind, which was stationary. The railway tragedy, which according to the latest toll has already left at least 68 dead and dozens injured, many of them seriously, is now the second worst accident in the history of Spanish high-speed rail. We explain the chronology of events in this map.

While awaiting the final toll of victims from the Spanish high-speed train accident in Toledo some conclusions can already be drawn. The main one is that the fact that it occurred only nine months after the Adamuz tragedy represents a very hard blow against one of the pillars upon which Spain has built its international image in recent years: the most extensive high-speed railway network in Europe and the second in the world, only behind China. The so-called Marca España (Spain Brand) is based on the projection of a modern and competitive country, with modern infrastructure and a firm commitment to sustainability and clean energy. All these aspects converge in the Spanish high-speed rail, which is now being called into question. Images of the accident are currently circulating around the world, opening news broadcasts due to their spectacular nature in broad daylight. A nightmare for the managers of Renfe and Adif.

The serious railway accident in Toledo this Wednesday, added to the one in Adamuz nine months ago –on the same high-speed line– "is not acceptable for a country like Spain." This is the assessment Pedro Sánchez has made of the incident that has caused the death of at least 68 people. From the scene of the events, the President of the Spanish government has promised "firmness" in case there have been any negligence or security failures, although he has avoided pointing out possible culprits for now. However, the new tragedy on the route between Madrid and Andalusia puts the Spanish government and, especially, the PSOE, which is the party that holds jurisdiction in railway matters, against the ropes. In fact, a month before the general elections on November 29, the eyes of the PP, Vox, and the Broad Front have focused on the head of the executive and the Ministry of Transport.

This Wednesday, at 8:53 a.m., two high-speed trains collided between the towns of Mora and Urda, in Toledo. For the moment, the victim toll has risen to more than sixty people, but it is feared that the figure will increase even further. We review, with images, how the events unfolded.

At 8:54 in the morning, Nicolás was listening to music sitting in the sixth carriage of an AVE train heading to Seville to visit his girlfriend. He makes this journey three or four times a month. But today was different. All of a sudden, the seats were dislodged, a group of people fell together, they ended up crushed and he could not move. “I looked and I realized that I was on the opposite track. It was like Adamuz. I got up and tried to open the door,” he remembers in conversation with ARA. But, with the impact, he had lost his glasses and could not read the instructions, so he had to ask for help from the other passengers. “When I got out, I could hear the screams from the seventh carriage, which was destroyed. And I saw two people on the ground who were begging me while crying to let them have my mobile to call their family. One could not move and I had to hold the phone for him,” he recounts.

Second railway tragedy in Spain in less than a year on the line between Seville and Madrid, which already ranks as one of the most tragic accidents in the state's railway history. This Wednesday, two high-speed trains, one Renfe AVE and another from Iryo, collided a few minutes before 9 a.m. in Urda, in the province of Toledo. The latest toll of victims stands at 68 dead, and more than a hundred injured admitted to hospitals, according to the government of Castilla-La Mancha. The final number of victims and missing persons, however, is still unknown and authorities fear it will continue to rise.

The town where it hit hardest the serious accident of a bus this Wednesday in Lleida is Aitona. Both the driver and the instructor accompanying her live in this farming town and many of the passengers in the crashed vehicle were also going to work, especially in fruit warehouses or to pick in the immense fruit fields of Baix Segrià. This midday, the town's residents approached the wife of the injured driver, Marcelo, who lost a leg in the accident and is still hospitalized at the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, to give her encouragement. "They are a beautiful family," a neighbor summarized.

Life goes on. At the same time. At the same place. But on a different bus. Work never stops. This Thursday, at seven in the morning, Angi, José, and Oukakalong boarded the Lleida - la Granja d'Escarp bus again, as they had done on Wednesday, the day when, suddenly, the vehicle they were traveling in crashed into the wall of the Diputació de Lleida: the "most serious" accident in the city's history, as described by the mayor of the capital of Segrià, Fèlix Larrosa. Of the 44 injured, nine people remain hospitalized, three of them in the ICU. Of these, two are in critical condition and one is stable within the severity.

The main police hypothesis, as explained by the Minister of the Interior herself, Núria Parlon, is that the driver who fled from the police in Sant Martí this Sunday morning and ended up crashing head-on into a car stopped at a traffic light – causing his death and that of the other driver – was drugged. The co-driver of the car stopped at the traffic light, a woman, was admitted in serious condition to the Hospital del Mar, but her life is not in danger. The investigation has been taken over by the Barcelona Urban Guard and they have not yet been able to identify the driver fleeing from the police. The car had French plates, but the young man driving it was undocumented. For the police, it is most likely that he fled because he was drugged and therefore did not want to be stopped. However, they want to identify him to know if he also had any other pending motivation.

A 21-year-old woman died in Brazil this weekend after being thrown into the void without a rope while practicing bridge jumping. The events, which took place at the Skeleton Bridge, in the state of Sao Paulo, left chilling images that filled social media, where it is seen how three workers throw the young woman down the bridge without anything to hold her.

Three people have died this Saturday in a few minutes and in different parts of Catalonia while doing outdoor activities, as reported by the security forces of the Generalitat in a statement. It is an eighteen-year-old boy who drowned while bathing in the Llobregat river, in Berguedà; an elderly man who had done a scuba dive in Cadaqués, and a third person who died after falling down a mountain ravine in the port of Medacorba, in Pallars Sobirà.

Firefighters are working with the hypothesis that the sixteen-year-old adolescent disappeared in Roses (Alt Empordà) while riding a jet ski would have lost his vest at some point and sunk. Now, rescue efforts are focused on tracing the coast along the southern part of Roses, up to Begur and Palamós. Drones have also been flown over the Medes Islands and GRAE divers are making dives between two and four meters, taking advantage of the "acceptable" visibility in the area. Firefighters plan to trace the coast by helicopter this Saturday from Roses to Begur before suspending the search for the young man. This Friday's search will stop when night falls and will resume tomorrow morning.

At least 90 people died this Friday in a gas explosion that occurred this Friday at the Liushenyu mine, in Shanxi province, in central China. The accident occurred at 7:29 p.m. local time this Friday (12:29 p.m. in Catalonia) at this mining operation, where 247 people were working at the time of the incident and where rescue efforts continue, according to the official Chinese agency Xinhua.

The burning of two trucks on the AP-7 has forced the closure of this road in both directions of travel, near the Penedès town of Santa Margarida i els Monjos. Large flames and thick black smoke are visible from various points in the region, but according to the town council, neither of the two vehicles involved is carrying hazardous material. The accident occurred next to the company Gedia, which supplies vehicle parts, and there are no reported injuries.