TRAGEDY IN GALICIA
Spain’s worst rail disasters
The Santiago de Compostela crash is the deadliest the country has seen since 1972
- On January 3, 1944, between 500 and 800 people died when an express train crashed into an engine in Torre del Bierzo in the province of León. Due to the censorship that was in place during the Franco dictatorship, the state train operator Renfe reported only 78 dead and 75 injured.
- On July 21, 1972, 77 people were killed and 103 injured in a collision between a regional train travelling from Cádiz to Seville in Andalusia and the Madrid-Cádiz express train.
- On July 3, 2006, the derailment of a subway train in Valencia resulted in the death of 43 people and injured a further 47.
- Two trains on the Plentzia-Bilbao regional line crashed into each other at Urduliz in the Basque province of Bizkaia. The accident left 33 dead and 200 people injured.
- On September 24, 1980, the Madrid-Valencia train smashed into a bus at a level crossing on the track when the barriers were up in Chirivella in the province of Valencia, leaving 27 people dead and 40 injured.
- A regional train travelling from Martorell in the province Barcelona of crashed into a railcar proceeding from Barcelona city. The collision caused the deaths of 22 people and left a further 87 injured.
- In July 2003, a Talgo passenger train with 86 people on board hit a freight train head on in Chinchilla in the central province of Albacete. The death toll was 22, with 87 people injured.
- On March 31, 1997, the Intercity “Miguel de Unamuno” train linking Barcelona to Hendaye on the border between France and Spain derailed at Uharte-Arakil in the province of Navarre, causing the deaths of 18 people. A further 100 people were injured.
- Only July 15, 1980 the Talgo train linking Barcelona and Madrid smashed into a freight train that was stopped just before the station of Torralba del Moral in the northern province of Soria. Nineteen people died and 38 were injured.
