Toledo, Spain, Nov 10 (EFE). – Over 1,500 people, including the King and Queen of Spain, government ministers, and 150 relatives and victims, attended a funeral Mass at Toledo Cathedral on Tuesday for the victims of the Urda train accident.
The funeral was held in memory of those who died in the Oct. 28 accident, when two high-speed trains collided on a line connecting Madrid with Andalusia, killing 69 people and injuring over a hundred, of whom more than 20 remain hospitalized.
After the funeral Mass, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia comforted the victims’ relatives.
Also present at the religious service were the Vice President of the Spanish Government, Carlos Cuerpo, and the ministers of Defense, Margarita Robles; of Education, Milagros Tolón; and of Health, Mónica García. The Archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Cerro Chaves, presided over the service, and the Archbishop of Valladolid and President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Luis Argüello, co-officiated with other clergy.
The sister of one of the deceased gave the funeral reading, and the Archdiocese’s music chapel and a children’s choir performed liturgical hymns.
During his homily, Cerro Chaves called for “the causes to be clarified, the appropriate responsibilities to be assumed, justice to be served for the victims’ families, and all necessary measures to be taken to ensure that a tragedy like this one never happens again.”
“The memory of those who have lost their lives demands that we work for safety and for the value of every human life,” the archbishop added, calling for “unity and solidarity.”
The Archbishop of Toledo also addressed the families who lost their loved ones, saying: “We know that behind every life taken there is a story of love, a family, plans, hopes, and so many shared moments that are now just memories.”
“There are hugs that remain ungiven, words that could not be spoken, and absences that are difficult to fill,” he added.
The investigation has, so far, shown that a computer problem in the LZB safety system that switched on a different signalling system caused the accident.
The control center, located in Madrid, reportedly authorized a high-speed train operated by the state-owned company Renfe to travel at normal speed, rather than imposing “run on sight” conditions, which reduce speed to 40 kilometers per hour, as another train operated by the company Iryo was stopped on the same track. EFE
cst-cn/mcd
