Spain deploys heavy machinery to find missing bodies among train crash wreckage

ADAMUZ, Spain – Spanish rescuers used cranes and heavy machinery on Jan 20 to gain access to the worst-hit carriages in

one of Europe’s deadliest

train crashes

as they sought to recover the remains of those still missing in a disaster that has killed at least 41 people. 

Spaniards are reeling following the first-ever deadly accident on Spain’s extensive high-speed rail network, which occurred on Jan 18 near Adamuz in Cordoba province, about 360km south of the capital Madrid.

Experts say

a faulty rail joint

may be key to determining the cause of the derailment that led to the collision between two trains.

Emergency services used heavy machinery overnight and in the early hours of Jan 20 to level the ground around the front carriages of the train belonging to the state-run Alvia service, which had plunged down a 4m embankment after the crash, and the rear carriages of the train operated by private consortium Iryo, the Andalusian regional government said in a statement.

Two cranes were added to the rescue operation, the government said.

Another body was found overnight within the wreck of the Iryo train, which had derailed and caused the crash, raising the death toll to 41, the authorities said on Jan 20.

Bodies still trapped in the wreckage

At least three bodies were still trapped inside the wreckage, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told state broadcaster TVE late on Jan 19.

He said that the police had received 43 missing-person reports, which broadly matched the provisional death toll, but cautioned that the final number would be confirmed only once rescue teams had lifted the worst-affected carriages.

The collision occurred in rolling, olive-growing countryside in the foothills of a mountain range. The site is reachable only by a single-track road, making it challenging for rescuers to access the area with heavy machinery.  

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were set to visit the site along with Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero on Jan 20, the government’s public agenda showed.

Survivors’ accounts of tragedy and fortune began to emerge on Jan 20. 

Ms Lola Beltran told TVE that she had changed carriages minutes before the crash, moving from her assigned seat in one of the hardest-hit cars to another carriage to sit with a colleague. 

“We had to break the windows with emergency hammers and prise open the doors to get out,” she said, describing scenes of chaos, screams and torn-out seats.

Broken rail: Cause or consequence?

Transport Minister Oscar Puente urged patience as investigators carried out their work.

He said that all hypotheses were open, but it was “very strange” for the rear of a train that was not exceeding the speed limit to derail on a straight stretch.

The discovery of a broken rail was “one more piece of data” and did not, by itself, prove any single scenario, Mr Puente said. The key question was whether it was the cause or the consequence of the derailment, he said.

A photo circulated by the Spanish police showing a broken rail with the marker “1” beside it strongly suggested the fracture occurred at, or very near, the initial point of the derailment, Scottish railway engineer and author Gareth Dennis told Reuters.

He said the track just before the break looked intact, making it the likely trigger for the train leaving the tracks.

Mr Dennis also said the fracture appeared close to a rail weld, where steel beside the weld can be a weak spot. Cold weather can raise tensile stress as rails contract, he said.

“The interesting question is why did the rail break,” Mr Dennis said, rather than why the train derailed. REUTERS