The crash in the province of Toledo marks the third rail disaster in Spain this year.
In January, two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz, in southern Spain’s Córdoba province, killing more than 40 people. That collision happened after the tail end of a northbound train derailed and crossed onto the adjacent track, where a southbound train was approaching. More than a hundred people were injured, authorities said at the time.
That crash also killed one of the train drivers and led to a nationwide strike to demand greater safety for railway professionals amid a series of accidents throughout Spain.
Prior to that collision, Spain’s train drivers’ union, Semaf, had raised concerns about high speeds causing vibrations and subsequent wear and tear along high-speed railway lines, a source from the union told CNN at the time.
The Adamuz accident was the worst on Spain’s railways since a crash in Galicia in 2013, when 79 people were killed and 144 injured after a train slammed into a well and burst into flames near the city of Santiago de Compostela.
Days after the Adamuz train disaster, a commuter train near Barcelona derailed on a day of heavy rainfall, killing the driver and injuring dozens of passengers.
CNN’s Pau Mosquera, Tim Lister and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.