Reporting from the scene
In the middle of fields of alfalfa and almond trees, a seemingly endless procession of ambulances, police cars and firetrucks drove in and out of the crash scene, as rescue helicopters flew low overhead. The trains seemed twisted together, a mass of mangled metal.
Dozens of Civil Guard officers, some wearing the white protective suits used by forensic investigators, were inspecting the scene and gathering evidence. Broken cables and fallen utility poles were scattered all around.
A group of Catholic priests walked out from the area where the trains were located. “We came to pray for the dead,” said the Rev. Luis Lucendo, 63, a vicar of Toledo and parish priest in Villacañas, a nearby town.
“One man told us that his wife had died, and I was able to make the sign of the cross over her,” Father Lucendo said. “They were going to spend the day in Córdoba, but this is where their journey ended.”
