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High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

bbc.com

141–150 of 293 posts

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#141
What we know so far:

1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare.

2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact.

3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.

4. The renovation of this specific part of the infrastructure finished on May 2025, so it's practically new.

Spanish high speed trains are one of the best in the world and it had plenty investment from governments of different sign over the years. This has nothing to do with the regional network (Cercanias) and the local struggles in certain regions.

IMHO, this is a horribly timed accidental technical issue.

https://english.elpais.com/spain/2026-01-19/at-least-39-dead...

https://archive.ph/Ase0v

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#142
post #53

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I know nothing about Spanish politics or the railway network there, but jumping on blaming the government before even the beginning of the investigation, when we don't have a clue about the causes of the accident and when the emergency service haven't even finished recovering the victims body yet, is a revulsing attempt at political recuperation.

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#143

Blame game has started. Minister saying the track was renewed in May. Train operator saying the train was inspected 4 days ago. I'm in Spain currently. Very sad news.

> Blame game has started.

And the top comment of this tread is doing exactly that. We still have no idea of what happened and the bodies aren't even cold yet, it's disgusting.

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#145
post #53

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Let's not speculate. I'm the first to be skeptical of government but this just makes people skeptical of your words.

This is the problem. I'm skeptical of all our sides of government, they haven't done a lot for us to trust them, and keep chucking our trust into the bin.

But that doesn't mean we should resolve into skipping nuance, not understanding situations and critically evaluate what everyone is claiming. Mixing together two networks in order to score some cheap internet points, when the point doesn't even hold up to the most basic scrutiny, does the opposite of helping the case of proving how shit the government is.

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#146

As a reference, ~1500-2000 people die every year due to cars in Spain.

I knew this would come up so specifically searched for the comment. And I knew the death rate for cars would be >>>> than trains.

HOWEVER, there is something unique scary about a single incident that kills more people that fit in a typical car. Combined with the fact that you have 0 control over it is much more frightening (for lack of a better word) than car static deaths.

Just my opnion, may not be rational but I'd still rather be behind the wheel?

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#147
post #141

What we know so far: 1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare. 2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact. 3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a techni…

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Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Train crashes like this are _so_ rare. It's not as safe as flying but AFAICT in rich countries it's the same rough order of magnitude in terms of danger level. I don't have data but I would imagine crashes on these high speed lines (which always seem to be run at a higher level of professionalism than the general networks) are rarest of all. I don't think it's a good use of mental energy to plan for a crash like this…

> It's not as safe as flying In the EU it's safer than flying, with 0.5 deaths per 100 billion km/ passenger vs 3 deaths per 100 billion kms/ passenger. However, since an airplane flies at, let's say, six times the average speed of a train, the actual probability of dying during a 1-hour trip is almost 40 times more on a plane than on a train.

Do your stats include all rail? Because the average airplane definitely does not travel at 6 times the speed of high-speed rail (more like 2.5-3x), and definitely way faster than regional rail (in the order of 12x)

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#149
post #141

What we know so far: 1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare. 2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact. 3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a techni…

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I don't think Russians are directly behind this. They targeted trains in Poland twice, but I suspect the next targets would be in Germany, France and the UK, and not Spain which is relatively conservative in supporting Ukraine.

Re: High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39

#150
Yes. The Frecciarossa 1000 (ETR 1000) is an EMU, and the trainset’s coaches/cars are equipped with braking equipment as part of the integrated braking system—so it’s not “only the power cars” doing the braking.

So my first gut instinct is that one wagons breaks malfunctioned and suddenly applied breaking power since it was the last two wagons that went off.

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