Investigators in Spain are focusing on a damaged piece of rail as they sift through evidence from Sunday's deadly high-speed train crash that killed at least 39 people and injured more than 150. Reuters, citing a source briefed on the early findings, reports that technicians examining the track near Adamuz, in the southern province of Cordoba, discovered a worn and broken joint—known as a fishplate—between two rail sections. The defect is believed to have been present for some time and to have gradually worsened as trains continued to pass over it, widening a gap between the rails. The source said investigators see this faulty joint as central to determining the exact cause of the derailment.
The Iryo-operated train, a Frecciarossa 1000 high-speed model, saw its first carriages clear the gap before the eighth and final car left the tracks, pulling the seventh and sixth cars off as well, according to Reuters' source. The derailed train then collided with an oncoming Renfe service, knocking it off the line and down an embankment in what ranks among Europe's worst modern rail accidents. Iryo is majority-owned by Italy's state-controlled Ferrovie dello Stato. Manufacturer Hitachi Rail inspected the train on Jan. 15 as part of routine maintenance, finding no issues, the source said.
An official cause of the crash has not been established, the Telegraph reports. Oscar Puente, Spain's transport minister, called it "truly strange." He said rail experts consulted by the government "are extremely baffled by the accident," reports the BBC. Renfe president Álvaro Fernandez Heredia told Cadena Ser radio it was too early to assign a cause but ruled out human error or excessive speed.
Puente and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the scene Monday. Sanchez, who canceled a planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, declared three days of national mourning. Puente noted that the line had been fully renovated in May and that the Iryo train was less than four years old.
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