New audio obtained by Spanish media reveals that the operator of a stopped train called a control center to say she could not restart the train as another behind it sped ahead in its direction.The resulting crash of the two high-speed trains Wednesday killed at least 69 people and injured dozens more.Many questions remain about the failures that led to one of Spain’s worst transportation disasters in decades, and whether something could have been done to prevent the crash.
Audio recordings of communications between the train operators and staff at a control center in Madrid shed light on the decisions made in the minutes before the trains collided.Spain’s transportation minister, Óscar Puente, said Wednesday that a security system stopped working because of a computer malfunction, causing multiple trains on the line to stop at about 8:30 a.m.
local time.With the computer system down, rail traffic was then handed over to the control center in Madrid.At approximately 8:36 a.m., the control center authorized a state-owned Renfe high-speed train to resume its journey, without speed limitations, despite the fact that there was a stationary train from private rail company Iryo on the tracks ahead, Puente said.
An erroneous decision was made to restart the Renfe train, breaking protocol, he said.Cranes lift wrecked train carriages on Thursday near Toledo, Spain.Manu Fernandez / APAudio obtained by Spanish media of the conversations between the operators of both trains and the control center sheds light on the series of decisions leading up to the collision at about 8:53 a.m., near the train station in Urda.NBC News has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the audio.After the computer system went down, the control center told the Renfe train operator to resume its journey “at normal speed,” according to an audio clip.For SubscribersFOR SUBSCRIBERSCruise company had troubled history before abandoning passengers in CambodiaFOR ...