Four U.S. citizens were among at least 69 people killed when a high-speed train slammed into the rear of a stopped train in central Spain last week, officials said Sunday, CBS News and the Associated Press reported. The report did not name the Americans.
The crash happened on the morning of Oct. 28 near Urda, in the province of Toledo.
The two trains, carrying more than 540 people between them, were both traveling from Madrid to Seville. Two cars derailed, and 58 people were injured.
Spain’s Center for Integrated Data, which identifies victims of mass-casualty events, said the dead also included citizens of Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, France and Portugal, along with 54 Spaniards. All but three victims have been identified.
Independent investigators’ initial findings indicate the state-owned RENFE train was moving at between 100 and 125 mph when it struck the privately owned IRYO train.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente has blamed a traffic controller’s poor judgment, while railway unions point to too few controllers handling growing workloads.
It is the second deadly crash on the Madrid-Seville line this year, after a January derailment and collision killed 46 people.
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