Japanese national confirmed dead in Spain rail crash, report says

Passenger footage and radio exchanges reconstruct the minutes before a train struck another that remained stopped near Urda.

Channel: Nippon TV News ·

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【スペイン高速鉄道事故】日本人1人の死亡確認通信記録から見えてきた“当時の状況”

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0:00A passenger's recording shows damage inside the carriage and derailed vehicles outside.
0:58The passenger describes waking when the impact threw his head against the seat ahead.
1:30The report gives the casualty toll and says Spanish authorities confirmed a Japanese national's death.
2:48Radio exchanges include instructions for the white train to resume at normal speed.
3:21The broadcast says a 40-kilometer-per-hour restriction should have applied.
3:57The report places the collision about ten minutes after the red train's driver reported remaining stopped.

Spanish judicial authorities have confirmed that a Japanese national was among those killed in the high-speed rail collision at Urda, Japan's Nippon Television News reports. Its November 2 broadcast puts the toll at 69 dead and more than 180 injured.

The collision happened the previous Wednesday near Urda, in Spain's central Toledo province. The report describes a white train striking a stationary red train, and examines radio communications that raise questions about why services were instructed to resume at normal speed.

Passenger footage opens inside a damaged carriage, showing the disrupted aisle and derailed vehicles outside. The man who recorded it says he had his eyes closed when the impact threw his head against the seat in front, waking him. Footage taken about four minutes after the crash shows passengers evacuating beside the tracks. He recalls that nobody knew how to respond.

The report then turns to exchanges between the control center and train drivers. In one, the white train's driver is instructed to resume running at normal speed. The driver asks for confirmation, and the instruction is repeated.

According to the broadcast, operations under those circumstances should have been limited to 40 kilometers per hour. It presents possible human error at the control center as a line of inquiry, rather than an established finding.

The crucial sequence concerns the train ahead: its driver reported being unable to restart the safety system and said the red train remained stationary. The collision followed about ten minutes after that warning, the report says.

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