Spain Train Crash: 66 of 69 Victims Identified as Families Await Answers

Spanish authorities have identified 66 of the 69 people killed in last week’s high-speed train collision near Urda, in the central province of Toledo, while efforts continue to identify the remaining victims and notify their families.

The provisional death toll remains 69, according to information released on November 2 by the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha and reported by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. The latest figures mark progress in a forensic identification process that has involved fingerprint analysis and DNA testing.

Of the 66 identified victims, 54 were Spanish nationals and 12 were foreign citizens. The foreign victims included four Americans and one citizen each from Argentina, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Japan, Mexico, Portugal and Tunisia.

Authorities said the three remaining unidentified victims were also believed to be foreign nationals. Some families who have been contacted want to travel to Spain to complete identification procedures in person.

Forensic teams continue identification work

The identification process has relied on two principal methods: fingerprint analysis and DNA testing.

By November 2, investigators had identified 53 victims through fingerprints, while 13 identifications were completed using DNA analysis. The work has involved Spain’s forensic medicine institutes in Toledo and Ciudad Real, the National Institute of Toxicology and the Civil Guard’s criminalistics service.

Authorities had notified the families of 60 identified victims. The remaining notifications were to be completed as quickly as possible, following the required procedures. Forty-seven bodies had been made available to relatives, according to the latest reported figures.

Three missing-person reports remained active, involving two Australian nationals and one Japanese national. Authorities have not established in the published update that these individuals correspond directly to the three victims still awaiting identification.

What happened in the collision?

The crash occurred on October 28 near Urda, when a train operated by Spain’s state-owned Renfe collided with the rear of a stationary train operated by Iryo on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line.