Two high-speed trains collided yesterday in the Andalusia region, Spain. A high-speed train "Iryo" of the Italian company "Trenitalia", carrying over 300 people, derailed while traveling from Malaga to the capital Madrid, ending up on the adjacent track. At that moment, a high-speed train of the Spanish company "Renfe", with about 200 passengers, was traveling in the opposite direction, which hit the "Iryo" head-on and also derailed. The number of victims is constantly increasing.
Directorate "Reference" BTA offers a chronology of railway accidents in Europe since 2020.
On July 7, 2020, near the village of Pernink in the Karlovy Vary region, Czech Republic, three people died and dozens were injured in a head-on collision between two passenger trains. For an unknown reason at the time, the two trains were traveling towards each other on the same railway line. The drivers applied the emergency brakes, but were unable to avoid the collision.
On September 4, 2021, in the Ergene region of Tekirdag district, Turkey, an 11-car freight train traveling from Edirne to Istanbul collided with a minibus carrying workers. The accident killed six people in the van and injured seven.
On October 31, 2021, a collision between two passenger trains occurred in the United Kingdom, injuring 14 people, including the driver of one of the trains, who was seriously injured. While approaching Salisbury station in southern England, the last carriage of the train derailed "after hitting an object". According to the railway operator, Network Rail, the derailment knocked out all railway signalling in the area, and then another train coming from London hit the derailed train. About 50 firefighters quickly arrived at the scene, and about 100 people were evacuated from the scene. 13 people were treated in hospital for minor injuries.
On 4 November 2021, a train hit a group of four migrants walking on the railway line between Dunkirk and Calais in northern France. One died, another was seriously injured, and the other two suffered minor injuries.
On 5 April 2022, a car and a passenger train collided at a level crossing in Mindszent, southern Hungary, near the border with Serbia. After the collision between the train and the car, a carriage carrying 22 passengers derailed, two of whom were seriously injured and eight had minor injuries. The car had entered the tracks, ignoring the red lights at the level crossing.
On 1 December 2022, two private freight trains collided on a section between two villages in Galați County, Romania. The locomotive of one of the trains was damaged and the driver lost control, which led to a collision with another freight train waiting on the platform. As a result of the collision, the locomotive and the first carriage of the stopped train derailed. The two trains, which were loaded with grain, were traveling on the Suceava-Constanta route.
On February 28, 2023, a collision between a passenger and a freight train on Tuesday evening in the Tempe Valley region, Greece, killed 42 people, most of whom were young people between the ages of 20 and 30, and over 80 people were injured. The number of victims may be higher, because according to fire services, the fate of 19 people is unknown.
On November 17, 2023, an accident occurred with two passenger trains in the province of Bavaria, Germany. According to initial police reports, at least six people were injured. The incident occurred when an intercity express and a regional train collided at a railway switch at the station in the city of Reicherhausen.
On April 1, 2024, a collision between a train and a bus in the Yaroslavl region near Moscow, Russia. The bus entered the tracks at a railway crossing, although the train was approaching at high speed. The train was damaged in the middle of the crossing and stopped there. It was later found that the dispatcher of the railway crossing in the Yaroslavl region, where the incident occurred, was drunk.
On April 16, 2024, at the central station in the city of Worms, Germany, located south of Frankfurt, a shunting passenger train hit the side of a high-speed train of the German railways “InterCityExpress“. In the collision, the 13 carriages of the high-speed train traveling from Munich to Hamburg derailed. The “Intercity“ express train was carrying 520 people. There were no serious injuries.
On July 27, 2025, a passenger train derailed in a wooded area in southwestern Germany. The train was traveling on the Sigmaringen-Ulm route. There were over 100 people on board the train of the national railway operator “Deutsche Bahn“. The driver, another employee, and a passenger were killed. Some of the injured 41 people were seriously injured.
On August 15, 2025, in southern Denmark, a train collided with a car, derailed, and one of the carriages broke off. As a result, one person died and several people were injured.
On October 13, 2025, a passenger train accident occurred near the village of Jablonov nad Turno near the town of Rožnava in the southern Slovak Košice Region. Initial reports indicate that this was due to human error when the trains passed through a common rail point before a tunnel. About 100 people were slightly injured in the accident.