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Urda survivors recall impact as families search hospitals for relatives

The French report brings together passengers' accounts, overnight rescue operations and questions about the instructions given after a signaling failure.

Channel: TF1 INFO ·

FranceStory of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of TF1 INFO's most watched videos since yesterday, with 80,706 views.

TF1 INFO: The news division of TF1, a private French television channel owned by the Bouygues group. 1.8M subscribers and 1.9B views.

Collision de trains en Espagne : au moins 68 morts, tout un pays sous le choc｜TF1 INFO

Things we can learn from the video

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0:20Survivor footage shows evacuations from overturned carriages and the arrival of emergency crews.
2:33Tanguy describes surviving the impact and helping with the first rescues.
3:47Survivors reach stations while families search hospitals and reception centers for missing relatives.
6:20The report examines a signaling failure and a possible incorrect authorization to resume movement.
8:50Charline Hurel reports that rescuers and military personnel are continuing searches after dark.
12:00French rail specialists explain safety protocols for signaling failures and problems with the tracks.

Tanguy survived the collision and joined the first rescue efforts. He remembers the sheer number of injured people and how difficult it was to help. Elsewhere, families searched hospitals and reception centers, trying to establish whether their relatives had survived.

Their accounts feature in France's TF1 INFO evening-news coverage of the high-speed train collision near Urda, south of Madrid. The broadcaster reports at least 68 deaths and 108 injuries after a train operated by state-owned Renfe struck the rear of a stationary Iryo train on Wednesday morning.

Footage recorded immediately afterward shows passengers evacuating overturned carriages as emergency workers arrive. Several carriages were thrown into neighboring fields, according to the report.

Passenger Rafael Barcelo recalls being in the bar carriage having coffee when the crash happened. Another survivor, Joander Vasca, says he had been asleep and woke to find himself airborne. The broadcast follows survivors arriving at stations as other families continue seeking news.

The report also examines a possible sequence involving a signaling malfunction and an incorrect instruction from a rail controller authorizing a train to resume its journey. It presents this as a line of investigation, not an established final cause.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente says movement after such an authorization must proceed by sight. Francisco Cárdenas, a representative of the UGT rail union in Catalonia, explains the resulting dependence on what the driver can see ahead.

Reporting from Urda after dark, correspondent Charline Hurel describes more than a hundred rescuers and military personnel still working at the scene. King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also appear in the coverage.

The broadcast closes by turning to France: rail journalist Marie-Hélène Poingt, SNCF high-speed train driver Grégory Moser and transport specialist Arnaud Aymé examine the safety procedures intended to prevent a signaling or track failure from becoming a collision.