Spain's transport minister resigns after rail disaster

Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente has announced his resignation in connection with the deadly rail disaster that occurred last week.

This is already the second such tragedy in the country since the beginning of the year.

This was reported on November 4 by the Spanish agency EFE.

"Óscar Puente, who until this Tuesday held the post of Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, announced his resignation. He also excluded himself from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party's electoral lists for the upcoming elections on November 29, stating that the transport minister 'cannot remain in office after two such serious accidents that occurred in less than a year,'" the publication says.

It is noted that Puente announced his decision following his address to the permanent delegation of the Congress. He explained that he made this decision immediately after learning about the large-scale rail accident in the town of Urda in the province of Toledo. Puente added that he considers resignation the "only acceptable" course of action.

The resignation came less than four weeks before the early parliamentary elections called by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for November 29.

In Spain on October 28, two trains collided, resulting in the deaths of at least 68 people.

According to preliminary information from El País, the main cause of the incident may have been human error amid a failure of the signaling system. It was specified that an employee of the Adif company authorized the departure of a train of the Renfe railway company, despite the fact that the track was occupied by a train of the operator Iryo.