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High-speed train crash in Spain kills at least 64, injures 80
(www.euronews.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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Yup, but still, there is one track, two objects moving towards each other. Is there truly no technology that can prevent this situation regardless of human errors?
Yes there was. And it was malfunctioning. Since at least the day before, as some train engineers reported. So they were doing it old style in the meantime.
Signalling, especially in another country, is not my specialty... But stateside (where tech can range from 2026 latest to akin to 1926).. there would have been a trackside signal that the moving train would've had to ignore... On top of the dispatch/comms screw up. I, like you, would have assumed there'd be some positive control preventing the trains from being on the same section of track or at least at high speed. Hopefully this will spark safety initiatives to improve signalling and train control.
The system in use in this case was quite antiquated (60s-70s) but even in this old system there are no trackside signals. From each train the system receives information including direction, braking characteristics.
The system then sends the cab the info the driver needs: Current Max speed, Target Speed, and Target Distance (how far until the train must hit Target Speed). So the equivalent of a red signal would be a Target of 0km/h.
This system had broken down for a couple of days, so trains were being manually dispatched. The controller made a mistake and gave one train clearance to continue at line speed despite there being a stopped train in front of it.
It probably boils down to costs, because passengers lives are cheap, sensors are not apparently.
They were supposed to move the same way. There was an issue with the signaling somehow so they had red lights, but the traffic controller overrode it by telling them to go. Had both trains started moving instead of just the back one this wouldn't have happened.