José Trigueros, a civil engineer, on the Adamuz train accident: “They were very close, which prevented the safety systems from working”

José Trigueros, president of the Association of Civil Engineers, explained on Cadena SER that the railway accident in Adamuz was caused by an unfortunate chain of events that prevented the safety systems from activating to avoid a collision between two trains.

Images of the incident show that the train bound for Huelva was extremely close when the cars of the other train derailed. “Based on the images, it appears that the train heading to Huelva was too close when the cars of the other train derailed, and this prevented the safety systems from operating and prevented the Alvia train from braking after detecting an object on the track.”

Trigueros also noted that the affected stretch of track had been recently renovated. “The work was completed in May 2025,” he said, adding that “the systems do not allow trains to exceed the permitted speed, even without intervention by the driver.”

Hypotheses on the causes

The engineer considers it unlikely that the accident was caused by a failure in the infrastructure. “It is still too early to be certain, but based on the images I have seen, it appears the cause may have been a failure in the running gear of the last cars of the Iryo train.”

Trigueros ruled out the possibility of rail traffic resuming in the coming days, citing the complexity of removing the damaged cars and the subsequent inspections that will be required to assess the condition of the infrastructure.

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