Photo: Francisco Gómez
"A very hard blow": Felipe and Letizia visit the injured in Toledo
King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited those injured in the Urda train crash at the hospital in Toledo. Afterwards the King said steps must be taken so that nothing like it happens again.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited Toledo University Hospital on Thursday afternoon, where many of those injured in the train crash near Urda are being treated. They met the patients, their families and the staff who cared for them.
The King and Queen cancelled their entire programme for the day. The visit had been set for 3 pm, but was moved back half an hour so as not to disrupt the hospital's shift change. They entered through the emergency department, where the injured were brought in on Wednesday.
They were accompanied by Emiliano García-Page, President of Castilla-La Mancha, Education Minister Milagros Tolón, a former mayor of Toledo, and the region's health minister Jesús Fernández Sanz.
Meeting doctors and patients
The King and Queen first met the doctors and nurses who received the first of the injured. They then visited several patients, who had their families with them.
The hospital has treated 38 of those injured in the crash. 15 have been discharged, while 15 remain in intensive care. It was the King and Queen themselves who opened the hospital six years ago.
"This must not happen again"
After the visit, the King spoke briefly to the press. He said Spain as a society has suffered a very hard blow, and that steps must be taken so that nothing like this happens again. He called for the investigation now under way to establish how and why the disaster happened.
The King also urged people to move forward, carrying the memory of those who died and the grief of their loss.
At least 69 dead
The crash happened at 8:54 am on Wednesday near Urda in the province of Toledo, on the high-speed line between Madrid and Andalusia. An AVE train travelling from Madrid to Seville with 378 passengers ran into a stationary Iryo train carrying 147 passengers. Several of the rear carriages of the Iryo train derailed and fell down an embankment.
At least 69 people were killed and more than a hundred injured. Spain's rail accident investigation commission had for a time reported 74 dead, but later corrected the figure to 69.
King Felipe was at a military exercise in Valencia when the crash happened, and quickly returned to Madrid. The same day, the King and Queen said they were deeply moved and concerned, and sent their support to the families, the injured and the emergency services.