A week ago today, for the second time in nine months, I got in my car and drove south from Madrid to cover a deadly train crash.
asserted
I → get → crash
At 8.53am last Wednesday, a high-speed train operated by Spain’s state-owned rail company, Renfe, smashed into the back of a stationary train run by the private rail company Iryo, on the outskirts of the small town of Urda in Castilla-La Mancha.
asserted
train → operate → Mancha
Sixty-nine people died in the accident, more than 100 were injured, and Spain’s already depleted confidence in its treasured rail network plummeted.
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confidence → die → network
As I drove to Urda, I – along with much of Spain – was feeling a grim sense of deja vu.
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I → drive → vu
On 18 January, an Iryo train on the same line from Madrid to Seville had derailed near the Andalucían town of Adamuz before being struck by a Renfe train coming from the opposite direction.
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train → derail → direction
Forty-six people died, scores were injured and public trust in Spain’s trains was badly shaken.
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trust → die → trains
The things I saw and heard in Urda mirrored those I’d seen and heard in Adamuz: local people rushing to the train tracks to help the injured; the rapid repurposing of municipal halls into emergency triage centres; and all manner of spontaneous acts of selflessness, bravery, practicality and compassion.
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I → see → selflessness
Some of the passengers whose journey south had come to a violent and premature end near Urda stood in line, many still with their wheelie cases and rucksacks, waiting for the coaches that had been chartered to take them onward.
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that → come → them
The queues looked almost normal until you noticed the odd bandaged head, torn trouser leg, or bloodstained top.
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you → look → head
Josimar Medina, a young Peruvian who was travelling with his Brazilian girlfriend, Vitoria Maia, told me the blood on his brown T-shirt belonged to an American called Austin.
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blood → travel → American
Medina had helped free Austin from the wreckage and had managed to get him out of the train.
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Medina → help → train
Although the young American was badly hurt, Medina had seen far worse injuries as he clambered off the train.
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he → hurt → train
“I saw … people missing limbs, and I saw one person who had nothing left below the chest,” he said.
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he → see → chest
“I saw people with their heads crushed and people with mutilated arms.”
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heads → see → arms
The shock and sorrow has echoed around Spain as the country tries to come to terms with what has happened, and to accept that its extensive and modern speed rail system – long a source of national pride – may not be the safe and reliable network it once seemed.
uncertain
it → echo → pride
As the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, put it last week, “public trust in the high-speed system has been broken”.
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trust → put → system
Sánchez and his socialist-led coalition government are now racing to rebuild that trust, but the task they face is immense – especially given the current circumstances.
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they → lead → circumstances
How will this play out in the elections?
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this → play → elections
The prime minister’s critics point out that 115 people died at Adamuz and Urda, and Sánchez and his ministers have had eight years to focus on, and invest in, rail safety.
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Sánchez → point → years
On Tuesday evening, the transport minister, Óscar Puente, accepted the inevitable, announcing his resignation, with the acknowledgment that “neither the country, nor I, can bear 100 deaths in less than a year”.
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country → accept → year
With the election drawing closer, the language from opposition parties is becoming more strident.
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language → draw → parties
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s party (PP), which is expected to finish first in next month’s vote, has accused the Sánchez administration of failing to keep Spaniards safe and of trying to use the latest tragedy to political ends.
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which → expect → ends
“It’s not just obvious that they’re not good at being in charge,” Feijóo said on Monday.
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Feijóo → ’ → Monday
“It’s that I’m also not sure that they’re good people, either.”
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they → ’ → ?
The far-right Vox party, with whom the PP could form a national coalition government, has been even more scathing, accusing the government of “killing” the train crash victims and of “incompetence, corruption, cronyism, and a lack of investment in maintenance and infrastructure improvements”.
uncertain
PP → form → maintenance
It is also urging the supreme court to investigate Puente on suspicion of manslaughter and causing bodily harm through gross negligence.
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It → urge → negligence
Puente has rejected allegations of mismanagement, and has insisted that Spain’s railway system is “safe and reliable”.
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system → reject → mismanagement
Despite signs of a modest resurgence in support just before the latest crash, Sánchez always faced a tough road to re-election.
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Sánchez → face → election
Corruption scandals have bedevilled his inner circle and his government was much criticised for its response to the mass crossing into Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta over the summer.
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government → bedevil → summer
That road now looks even more impassable.
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road → look → ?
But with disasters, emergencies and deaths so frequently politicised, especially in Spain, the worry now is that solutions to the failings at Adamuz and Urda may be missed amid all the campaigning and point-scoring.
uncertain
solutions → politicise → campaigning
As the politicians bicker and Spain prepares for its fifth general election in 10 years, the long process of recovery is just beginning for some of those who survived last week’s crash.
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who → bicker → crash
On Saturday afternoon, I got an email from the family of Austin Hartman, the young American pulled out of the train by Josimar Medina.
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I → get → Medina
They told me that Austin, a Cal Poly State University student who had been studying in Madrid, was being treated in a Spanish hospital for multiple fractures to his pelvis, hip, femur, humerus and rib, and was unlikely to be well enough to return home for at least two months.
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who → tell → months
GoFundMe pages have been set up for Austin and his friend Leah Silver-Fajardo, who was also badly hurt in the accident.
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who → set → accident
His family had seen the photo I took of Josimar and Vitoria in Urda and wanted to know if there was any way of contacting them so that Austin could say thank you.
uncertain
Austin → see → you
By the following day, Austin and his family had video called the couple.
asserted
Austin → call → couple
“It was so helpful for us to … thank Josimar for treating Austin with such loving care when he needed it more than anything,” Austin’s stepmother, Sandi, told me in an email on Tuesday.
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stepmother → thank → Tuesday
“Austin credits him with saving his life.
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Austin → credit → life
As we know, beautiful things are born of tragedy and it’s usually in the relationships that are formed out of it.”
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that → know → it
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
