CONTROLLERS were recorded saying “we’re getting confused” before the Spanish train disaster, and gave the wrong protocol, telling another driver to continue at full speed.
And a third was moments away from ploughing into the wreck of the deadly train crash that killed at least 69 people on Wednesday, an investigation has revealed.
As authorities rushed to the scene of , another kept running, and was heading straight for the scene of the accident.
It stopped just 600yards away from the crash site.
Half an hour before the crash, a computer glitch suspended all travel along 39 miles of track – before human error piled on further problems.
The train system that keeps high-speed trains from slamming into each other had failed that morning, with six trains left flying solo.
At 8.53am an AVE high-speed train collided with a stationary Iryo train, derailing carriages and killing at least 69 people.
But the third train, a northbound AVE kept heading straight towards the scene of the crash, stopping less than a mile away.
It had stopped briefly at around 8.39am, but started moving again just a minute before the deadly collision.
The train continued towards the site of the crash, and stopped with it in sight along the rails.
If the northbound train had kept on it could have slammed straight into the mangled trains, which were blocking the track in both directions.
One passenger on the third train posted footage from where it had stopped, saying: “Over there in the distance, where you can see a little red mark, is where the accident happened.”
His video shows the wreck of the two high speed trains in the distance, as passengers from the third train stand astonished.
It comes as El Pais revealed that high-speed train controllers had told drivers to drive too fast while the system was down, against established protocol.
According to the Renfe train driver’s manual, when the train-tracking system went down, an order should have been given to travel only at sight speed.
Sight speed means a driver would have time to see an obstacle on the tracks ahead with enough room to brake before hitting it.
But instead, drivers were told to continue at “normal speed”.
The southbound AVE therefore accelerated to reach more than 120mph.
Less than 20 minutes later, it smashed into the stationary train.
The mistakes had been , even as rescuers continued to comb the site for bodies on Wednesday.
Three recordings reveal the control room having two conversations with the Iryo driver and one conversation with the Renfe driver.
It comes as minister Óscar Puente has refused to resign in the chaos, insisting he still has the support of the PM.
He said: “My duty right now is not to talk about whether I should remain in my position, but to resolve the problem.”
Furious protesters had taken to the streets in Madrid to demand government resignations following the rail tragedy.
Young from the Madrid-based club AD Sprint, died in the crash with “a life ahead of her that has been unjustly extinguished”.
Also among the dead was Fátima Báñez, 59, who served as Spain’s minister of and from December 2011 to June 2018.
Spanish cop José Manuel Chacón, 31, from Seville, was also killed in the crash.
