A person died early this Tuesday morning after being hit by a train in Cornellà. Not even 10 days have passed since four young people lost their lives, on September 10, in a multiple winding in Montmelóthe most serious incident in Catalonia since, in June 2010, a train took the lives of 12 people at the Castelldefels station. They happen in dribs and drabs, but these types of tragedies are much more common than one would expect. Especially on this side of the Ebro, where, according to Renfe, the 60% of the collisions recorded throughout Spain.
It was November 2022. A Saturday. At the doors of the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), a small group of veteran train drivers were waiting for the departure of relatives who were taking the entrance exam. Renfe driver course. Manuel, now retired, said that throughout his career he had hit seven people. “It is a very nice professional life, but those bad memories don’t go away“, he explained. Both he and Antonio and Salva, all already retired, learned to live with a guilt that should not be such. More than one was on the verge of quitting. The trickle of accidents does not stop. Especially in Catalonia: in what It’s already a year, they are already 52 people who have been hit by a train (statistic that includes both deaths and injuries).
To give some perspective, in all of 2022 there were 58 people run over in Catalonia, compared to 50 in 2021, 40 in 2019 and another 40 in 2018. As it is, 2023 is on track to surpass all records. Aside from the human tragedy, which is ultimately the most important thing, there is also the impact on the railway network. According to data from Renfe, so far this year, road accidents have meant delays of more than 60,000 minutes and have affected nearly 1,900 trains. A lesser evil, without a doubt.
Experts do not have a clear answer as to why more accidents are recorded in Catalonia than in other places.
Montmeló and Castelldefels
The attacks generally occur to people who they try to end their lives. They are close to 80% of the cases, according to the railway operator. But it can also be a matter of mistakes when crossing the tracks or imprudence; because you are looking for a shortcut, for example. The latter is what seems to have happened on September 10, almost at night, when four young people going to a music festival next to Circuit de Catalunyain Montmeló, were hit by an R3 train that at that moment It was traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour along a curve with poor visibility.
Ignorance of the railway infrastructure was also decisive in the death of 12 people in Castelldefels, on June 23, 2010, when they crossed the station tracks to heading to a Sant Joan festival which was celebrated on the beach. Just at that moment another convoy of passengers entered from the other side. The families of those affectedHowever, they began a judicial crusade to denounce the lack of security at the station. After losing in all Spanish judicial instances, which ruled that there was negligence On the part of the victims, they appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
In 2017, the PNV senator José María Cazalis Eiguren He asked about the collisions on the Spanish railway network. Adif provided the information, which refers to the decade 2007-2016, specifically, to fatal accidents. A total of 144 people lost their lives on the tracks in those 10 years, and in 58 cases, death occurred somewhere on the Catalan railway network. 40.3% of the total. The Community of Madrid It is followed by a long distance (19 deaths, 13.1%) and then comes the Valencian Community, Euskadi and Asturiasall of them with 18 deaths, 12.5% of the total.
No geographic pattern
Regarding the locations of the accidents, whether or not they end in the death of the victim, there is usually no geographic pattern or pattern. Rodalies concrete line that registers more incidents than others, but Renfe admits that “there are a series of bad steps in beach areas“; that is, dirt roads that, inexplicably, end at the train tracks, as if creating an area authorized for crossing.
On the R2, in the Garraf, a driver points out, it is common meeting people crossing the tracks. Reason? The train is between the Morisca cove and the car park. ¿What is the fastest way? The railway infrastructure. The same thing happens in stations, especially on the R3, which are located in the middle of the town and people cross the tracks “as if it were just another street, many times, without looking to see if the train is coming.” “That’s why at these points – continues the driver – we are already going with a thousand eyes and, although it is not obligatory, with the reduced gear“.
In 2023, accidents have occurred at points of BadalonaSitges, Castellbisbal, Santa Susanna, Montgat, La Granada, Cardedeu, Llinars, Barberà del VallesCunit, Sant Pol, Canet, Balenya or Granollers, among others. Of course, also in Montcada, municipality that has pending the burying of the roads and that is approaching the catastrophic figure of 200 deaths (there are, for now, 179) on the roads.
This newspaper already reflected after the Montmeló tragedy on the need to fence the roads, as happens with high speed. Although the train drivers would appreciate it, there is some agreement that it should not be necessary, since in the same way that a highway is protected and not a national highway, the AVE is also protected and the conventional network is left without a perimeter. “Lack of railway culture“says Joan Carles Salmerón, director of the Center d’Estudis del Transport (CET).
Improve signage
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Daniel Pispokesperson for the association Public Transport Promotion (PTP), is also not in favor of protecting the entire Rodalies mesh. “The signage needs to be improved, especially at stations with railway level crossings. But the person who has decided to end his life is not going to change his mind because of a barrier and, unfortunately, will find a waywhether on a bridge or on a station platform,” he points out.
But why Catalonia concentrates so many accidents on the train tracks? It is a question for which there is no clear answer and that Renfe also studies. The fact of passing through most socially vulnerable areas. that the roads pass through urban centers and also rural. May there still be so many level crossings for which cross to go from one side to the other Township. That you are not as afraid of the train as you are of the car. And that the signalingboth visual and acoustic, should leave no room for doubt about the dangers that a railway infrastructure entails. These are some of the arguments shared by the experts consulted by this newspaper, who, however, do not see themselves capable of breaking the tie with a Solomonic response.