Still waiting for the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Adif and Renfe technicians to analyze the black box already recovered from the , the authorities are studying a main hypothesis: the Ministry of Transport believes that the retaining wall of the AP-7 gave way partly on the track and partly on top of the driver’s cabin, so its ability to react was “zero”. This was stated at a press conference by the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente. Both the Government and the Fire Department of the Generalitat agree that the retaining wall probably detached in this way, due to the pressure of the water coming from the rain that fell throughout the day. The collision caused 37 injuries and the death of the 28-year-old young man from Seville who at that time was in training as a train driver and accompanied the owner.
which connects Sant Vicenç de Calders with Manresa and passes through Barcelona, circulated in a northerly direction. It is a very busy line with a frequency of just under half an hour per train in the time interval in which the accident occurred. The collision against the retaining wall occurred around 9:02 p.m., according to the firefighters and the , so the previous convoy that circulated along that same section that connects Sant Sadurní d’Anoia with Gelida (Barcelona) did so between 8:36 p.m. and 8:43 p.m. and did not collide with the dislodged concrete.
In the section of the collision the speed was limited to 60 kilometers per hour due to works, despite the fact that the area usually travels at 140 kilometers per hour, so the accident could have been even worse. Puente has highlighted the “fortune” that the limitation existed.
The accident area is a section very close to the AP-7, the busiest road on the Mediterranean coast, with traffic of around 22,000 trucks per day right at the point where the concrete gave way, according to data from the . Investigations are yet to find out whether the retaining wall could have been weakened by both the rainfall and the constant vibrations to which it is subjected.
The one in Gelida, on which the wall that collapsed on the train last night rested, has forced circulation on the main highway of Catalonia from Martorell (Barcelona) to be cut off in all lanes that go south, a situation that according to the Generalitat will last “a few days.” This was announced by the director of the SCT, Ramon Lamiel, who detailed that this cut was agreed upon following a request from the Ministry of Transport, which is the owner of the road.
The six carriages of the accident train still remain on the track and their removal is scheduled for this Wednesday night, since the entire Rodalies de Catalunya service has been suspended to check the entire railway infrastructure. The priority now is to secure the highway because the retaining wall is still resting on the train and in removing it there is a risk that part of the road that passes over the rails will collapse, as reported by the intervention chief of the Generalitat Firefighters, Guillem Amorós. Neither the Ministry nor the Generalitat have clarified the ownership of the damaged wall, whether it belongs to Adif or whether it belongs to the General Directorate of Highways. In any case, the cost of the repair will initially be borne by Adif.
The AP-7 is one of the busiest highways in Spain, in addition to being the one with the most traffic accidents in Catalonia, with 17 deaths and more than 400 accidents in 2025, according to the SCT. In recent years it has been the subject of controversial actions on the infrastructure, but none of sufficient magnitude at the point of the accident to show a weakening of the concrete. The last one was right in the section between both municipalities and consisted of installing a new sound-reducing pavement to reduce noise pollution, which included milling operations, firm replacement and repainting of road markings.
The Minister of Territory, , has asked for caution when drawing hasty conclusions and has assured that the accident possibly occurred due to the accumulation of rain in recent days. “It could not be predictable with the data that was available,” he assured at a press conference after the meeting with CECAT, although for the moment he has advanced that the water pressure hypothesis is the first one that the Government is considering.
In the face of criticism from the opposition of the Generalitat for the “poor” management of the railway network, Paneque has insisted that, with the data available to the Government on the adverse effects of the storm, an accident like the one that occurred on the R4 “could not be foreseeable.” Since the early hours of this Wednesday, train drivers from Renfe and Adif have carried out white marches to check the safety of the medium and long distance railway infrastructure throughout the territory, but they have ensured that circulation.
