
A serious rail accident has rocked Spain, where two passenger trains, the Iryo and the AVE, collided on a railway line near Toledo. The collision caused several carriages to derail, while some of them ended up on a slope. According to reports, there are fatalities and many injured. Amidst the chaos, smoke and heavy scenes, survivors recount the moments of horror they experienced.
“These are the last three carriages of the Iryo train. They are constantly taking people out of them and covering them with sheets. Dead. It is a terrible sight. I find it hard to believe that there are still people alive in those three carriages. Everything is destroyed and distorted, as if a bomb had exploded.”
This is how Sebastián Herrero, 46, from Seville, who was traveling on the Iryo train, in carriage number 7, describes the accident.
The train had departed from Madrid at 07:54 and was destined for Seville.
"I was lucky enough to be in carriage number 7, at the front of the train. At 08:39 we stopped. Since I travel by train often, I thought it was something normal, maybe a power outage or a technical problem.
"But at around 8:51 or 8:52, as we were sitting in our seats, I suddenly collided with the seats in front of me. It was an extremely hard impact."
Sebastián says that when the AVE train collided with the Iryo train, he felt like he was in the air for 4 or 5 seconds. To him, those seconds seemed like an eternity. He says it miraculously saved his life.
"Out of the nine carriages, those with numbers 1 to 4 or 5 all derailed. The five carriages of the AVE train were where the carriages of the Iryo train should have been," he recounts from the scene of the accident.
"Broken arms and smoke everywhere"
Sebastián says he was lucky to be in one of the front carriages, oriented in the direction of movement.
"After the crash, there were a lot of people with broken noses, broken arms... Then we started seeing smoke everywhere."
Immediately after the accident, a plainclothes police officer, who was not in uniform, ordered the evacuation:
Open the doors and everyone get out!
After descending the slope where the train had ended, the passengers were allowed to enter a small property, where they awaited the arrival of the Civil Guard, firefighters and three helicopters.
Sebastián still can't understand how such an accident could have happened.
"It's a perfectly straight stretch of railway. I can't explain how there wasn't enough warning. I really don't understand."
"I don't know anything about my friend"
Joaquina, a nurse, is worried and still can't believe what is happening.
"I don't know anything about my friend," she tells reporters at the Santa Justa train station in Seville, where the two had arranged to meet on Wednesday, October 28.
Her friend is one of the passengers on the Iryo train that collided with the AVE high-speed train.
Joaquina and her friend had worked together for years at the Virgen del Rocío hospital. They were supposed to meet again that day in Seville, where her friend had returned to work at a private clinic.
"She confirmed to me this morning that she would be traveling by train, but when I call her, she doesn't answer. The phone is unreachable," Joaquina says.