A passenger seriously injured in the January 18 train crash in southern Spain died on Friday, bringing the death toll from the tragic accident to 46.
The incident has reopened the debate over rail transport safety in Spain, a country that has the second largest high-speed train network in the world, after China.
The accident occurred overnight when several carriages of a train operated by the private company Iryo, a subsidiary of the Italian state-owned group Ferrovie dello Stato (Trenitalia), derailed near the small town of Andamouth, on the Madrid-Seville line. The carriages slid onto adjacent tracks just seconds before another train from the public company Renfe arrived, which collided with them.
Both trains were traveling at speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour and carried a total of 480 passengers.
Spanish authorities are continuing investigations to determine the causes of the tragedy, while the main scenario so far is related to a defect in the railway infrastructure, specifically a damaged rail connection shortly before the accident.
