Resilience Unbroken.
Elena Fragío Recounts Her Adamuz Accident Journey, Inspiring Resilience.
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Six months after the Adamuz rail disaster killed 46 people, survivor Elena Fragío says her old life is gone forever. "What I want is to have my life as I had it before, because that life has already been taken from me," the 28-year-old criminologist from Huelva told La Nueva España. She spent 103 days completely immobilized in hospital after the January 18 crash, one of the deadliest rail accidents in 21st-century Spain.
Fragío has now turned her ordeal into a memoir, *Adamuz. El último tren*, which documents not just the crash but the grueling recovery that followed. Her message to fellow survivors is blunt: "When something like this happens to you, you must not throw in the towel," she said, according to El Periódico.
A Two-Train Collision 22 Hours in the Making
The crash began on the evening of January 18, 2026, near Adamuz, Córdoba. An Iryo train traveling from Málaga to Madrid derailed at 19:39. Its last three carriages jumped the tracks. Just one minute later, a Renfe Alvia train from Madrid to Huelva — carrying 184 passengers at roughly 200 km/h — slammed into the wreckage, according to RTVE. The collision left 46 dead and up to 152 injured.
Critically, a voltage anomaly had been detected in the rail circuit 22 hours before the crash, El Periódico de Aragón reported. Investigators now believe a rail fracture at a welding joint caused the initial derailment. The weld connected a 2023 rail to one from 1989. The difference in hardness between the two metals may have caused the structural failure.
Fragío's 103 Days of Darkness and Pain
Elena Fragío was on the Alvia train heading home to Huelva. She had just sat a civil service exam in Madrid to become a prison officer — her lifelong goal. The crash left her with a perforated eardrum, multiple fractures, and 103 days flat on her back in a hospital bed, according to Levante-EMV. She writes in her book about "90 minutes of total darkness" inside the wreckage.
One image haunts her most: the sound of "phones that wouldn't stop ringing" in the debris, belonging to passengers who could no longer answer. Her physical injuries now bar her from ever becoming a prison officer. That career path, and the person she was before, are both gone, she says.
Criminal Negligence Probe Targets Maintenance Records
This is not just a tragedy — it may be a crime. The Court of Montoro (Court No. 2) is investigating the crash as potential "homicide and negligent injuries," according to La Opinión de Murcia. The Guardia Civil has been ordered to identify the maintenance workers and supervisors responsible for the Adamuz rail section.
Investigators found what appear to be forged signatures and altered records in the maintenance logs for the rails that failed. This shifts the story from an unlucky accident to possible criminal negligence. Transport Minister Óscar Puente had initially called the crash "strange," noting the track was renovated in 2023 and had passed inspection as recently as May 2025, reported El Correo Gallego.
Public Trust in Rail Travel Takes a Major Hit
The disaster has shaken Spain's confidence in high-speed rail. Usage dropped between 15% and 17.7% in the months after the crash, according to La Opinión de Zamora. Twenty-six of the 46 victims came from the province of Huelva, deepening a long-held sense of neglect among locals who have protested the line's aging infrastructure for years.
For Elena Fragío, the numbers tell only part of the story. Her memoir is aimed at giving voice to survivors still fighting to reclaim their lives. "I still have a lot of recovery ahead of me," she told Información. "But I refuse to be silent." The book is also a warning: disasters like Adamuz do not end when the rescue crews leave.
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