Spanish train collision kills passengers

A Renfe train traveling from Madrid to Seville collided with the rear of an Iryo service on Wednesday morning near Toledo, Spain. The impact occurred in the seventh carriage of the state-operated train, where passenger Josimar Medina and his girlfriend, Vitoria Maia, were seated. Medina woke up in the air, hurtling through the compartment, and landed on the floor. He described seeing passengers with deep cuts, missing limbs, and crushed heads. One victim had no body below the chest. Medina’s light brown T-shirt was stained with the blood of a young American man he helped move to safety. The couple had been seated in the seventh car. Had they been closer to the front, they likely would have died.

The crash site was located in vineyards and olive groves near the town of Urda in the Castilla-La Mancha region. Emergency responders from Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid filled the local streets with cars, vans, and trucks. A local sports center was converted into a triage area for walking wounded. Medina and Maia climbed out of the damaged train to assist others while waiting for medics and Guardia Civil officers to arrive.

Fredrich and Arabella Barilea, a couple from the Philippines who live in Dubai, were riding on the Iryo train. Fredrich was thrown by the force of the impact. A passenger nearby shouted for everyone to exit because another train could hit the wreckage. The Barileas joined the crowd moving away from the tracks. Many people had head injuries and were covered in blood. They walked as far from the train as they could. Buses later transported the lightly injured to Urda. The Barileas said they were too shocked to know their exact location at first.

The table at which the Barileas were sitting disappeared during the collision. Arabella described the event as happening in a split second. She said the couple feels they are living a second life. The couple expressed gratitude for surviving the accident.