Spain’s transport minister says he will resign after Urda crash

Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said he had decided to resign after a train crash near Urda killed 69 people, but would remain in office while addressing the disaster’s consequences and working on measures to prevent future accidents. He did not give a date for leaving his post. Puente made the announcement to lawmakers on November 3, six days after the October 28 crash. He said he had made the decision in the first minutes after the tragedy and argued that a transport minister could not remain in office after two accidents of such severity in less than a year. His remarks made clear that he would continue in his role for now; the timing of his departure was not established. The Urda crash involved a high-speed train operated by Spain’s national rail service and a stationary train operated by Iryo. More than 200 people were injured, according to one account. Puente told lawmakers that the AVE train had been allowed to continue after its LZB automatic safety system failed. He said it travelled about 25 kilometres at more than 160 km/h before hitting the stationary train. The collision followed another deadly rail accident in January near Adamuz, in southern Spain. That...