Train Collides with Crane Arm in Spain’s Fourth Rail Accident in a Week

Reuters

13:26 JST, January 23, 2026

MADRID, Jan 22 (Reuters) – A commuter train collided with a crane arm that swung into its path in southeastern Spain on Thursday, the transport minister said, in the country’s fourth rail accident in less than a week.

Six people suffered minor injuries after the arm hit the passing train’s windows, close to the port city of Cartagena in Murcia region, authorities added.

The incident – which did not derail the train but briefly disrupted traffic on the line – came four days after a high-speed train collision in the southern Andalusia region killed at least 43 people.

Two days after that, on Tuesday, a commuter train derailed after a containment wall fell on the track due to heavy rain near the city of Barcelona, killing the driver and seriously injuring four passengers.

The main train drivers’ union called a nationwide strike over safety standards after that and a second, less serious, collision in the northeastern Catalonia region the same day.

On Thursday, “a street-lighting basket crane vehicle … encroached on public railway land with its arm, striking the windows of a metric gauge train that was passing by at the time,” Transport Minister Oscar Puente wrote in a post on X.

The injuries were minor, a spokesperson for the central government’s representative in Murcia told Reuters.

Alcohol tests on both the train driver and the crane operator were negative, they added.