Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente has announced his resignation after two fatal train accidents in a single year, including one last week that killed 69 people and injured more than 200.
“I made the decision about my future in the first minutes after the tragedy,” Puente told lawmakers in Madrid. “A Minister of Transport in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of such seriousness in less than a year, however different they may be and whether or not they are directly responsible.”
Puente resigned six days after a train crashed into another, following what authorities say was a combination of human and computer errors on a high-speed rail line linking Madrid and Andalusia. A train, operated by Spain’s national rail service, crashed at high speed into a stationary train during a safety system failure that halted all rail traffic along the line.
“There was a red signal prohibiting traffic, but the train was allowed to move,” Puente said last week. “It was a decision taken in inexplicable circumstances.”
Last week’s accident was preceded by another serious train accident in January, where two high-speed trains collided head-on in the town of Adamuz, killing at least 41 people. At the time, it was the deadliest accident Spain had seen in more than a decade.
Many politicians and Spain’s transport workers’ union have called on Puente to resign following last week’s collision. On the night of the accident, police confronted hundreds of protesters outside the Transport Ministry headquarters, some of whom held signs demanding the resignation of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Puente’s announcement comes just three weeks before the country’s general elections, in which the minister said he would not run as a candidate. Sánchez called these elections early following several corruption scandals, controversy over housing affordability and numerous setbacks for his socialist PSOE party in municipal elections.
Sánchez congratulated Puente in a statement on social media, saying the former transport minister had stepped down “out of respect for the victims and the progressive project.”
“Politicians like him give dignity to our country and show us that we are not all the same,” Sánchez wrote. “While some only give lessons, others give everything. »
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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