The marks on the wheels of Iryo's train expose Minister Óscar Puente

In the last few hours, new and significant findings have emerged from the investigation into the terrible train accident in Adamuz.

Reuters reveals the discovery of a broken joint on one of the tracks in the Adamuz accident
Adamuz: a government that spread hoaxes about the railway sector is now warning against them

The gap in the tracks was revealed by several media outlets this Monday

On Monday, several media outlets reported the discovery of a broken joint on one of the rails of the Adamuz train accident track. According to Reuters, technicians who investigated the tracks "identified some wear on the joint between sections of the rail, known as a fishplate, which they said showed the fault had been there for some time." That information added that "the faulty joint created a gap between the rail sections that widened as trains continued to travel on the track", so "the technicians believe the faulty joint is key to identifying the precise cause of the accident."

Oscar Puente's attempt to discredit that information

Early Tuesday morning, Transport Minister Óscar Puente attempted to deny this information, stating that "no technician is able to confirm whether the break was a cause or a consequence.". The minister also dismissed the idea that the cause of the accident could be "determined by any newspaper newsroom," thus seemingly suggesting that the data from the investigation was fabricated by some media outlets. The minister insisted that those rails "were laid new in May" and that there had been no indication that the track "was in bad shape." Puente's interest in ruling out a possible track failure is evident, since its maintenance falls under his Ministry's jurisdiction through the public company ADIF.

A pro-government media outlet is trying to focus attention on the train driver from Iryo

Meanwhile, this Tuesday, a pro-government media outlet, eldiario.es, focused on the driver of the Iryo train, publishing a recording from the train's black box -presumably leaked by the government itself- in which the driver claimed to have suffered a "snag", a hypothesis that would place the responsibility on the first derailed train. This recording shows that the train driver was unaware that a Renfe Alvia train had collided with the rear of his train, as it was quite long and the Alvia came to rest hundreds of meters away in the middle of the night. The recording also reveals that the ADIF control center was initially unaware of what had happened to the Alvia, as its driver had died and was unable to report the accident.

The breach left marks on the wheels of all the cars on the Iryo train

Today, at 2:18 CET, El Mundo published information that sheds more light on what happened: "The break in the track left notches on all the cars of the Iryo train until it collapsed." The article states: "All the wheels of the Iryo train involved in the accident show marks the size of a 50-cent coin between the locomotive and car 6, which derailed. The investigation is analyzing previous trains and believes that the passage of train 6128 broke the track." This media outlet adds: "The element that caused the Iryo train derailment will be crucial in determining responsibility. If it is the case of faulty welding, the responsibility would fall on Adif and the companies it subcontracts for maintenance."

Those marks indicate that the gap may be one of the causes of the accident

What these marks indicate is that the track had a gap before the Iryo train passed over it, and that this break in the rail revealed on Monday would not be a consequence of the derailment, but rather could be one of the causes of the accident, even the main one. In fact, it is possible that this break was what caused the second-to-last bogie of the Iryo train, number 15, to detach and come to rest far from the train.

This new information once again puts the spotlight on what happened regarding the railway infrastructure and, therefore, on the Ministry of Transport, which is responsible for its maintenance. And it does so amidst a wave of criticism over the problems with the maintenance of the railway network, which has been one of the causes of the growing deterioration of this service (which has been registering more and more delays, incidents and interruptions for some time), a problem that yesterday led to ADIF's decision to limit the speed to 160 km/h on 150 kilometers of the Madrid-Barcelona section due to the state of the track.

+ UPDATED 5:44 PM: Minister Óscar Puente today acknowledged the marks on the wheels of the Iryo train and on "two or three" trains that passed through that track earlier: "The bogies of the first five cars have a mark, and it is even possible—something that is being analyzed—that the two or three trains that passed through earlier have similar marks. The question now is to find out why, what caused them, if there was something on the track, if it was the track itself that was beginning to break down."

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Photo: Efe.