Adif and Ineco left in writing that no irregularity was committed with the transfer of parts from the site of the Adamuz railway accident to the Hornachuelos base (Córdoba) despite the fact that they did not have judicial authorization. The railway manager prepared his report in which he showed that these sources of evidence were neither manipulated nor altered and he did so only 48 hours after the Civil Guard raised the alarm in court for this unusual action.
In fact, on February 9, the public company wrote this report, which Minister Óscar Puente used to defend Transport management, against the “phachobulosphere”. However, two days before, the Civil Guard presented a letter to the court investigating the Adamuz railway accident in which they alerted the judge that they had detected the transfer of welds and other parts from the damaged trains and the track without the judicial authority being aware of the matter.
In his report – which was titled “Reporting on possible irregularity by Adif personnel”, the Armed Institute explained that it learned of these events on February 6, when it questioned the person in charge of this Adif maintenance base. This employee declared before the agents that on January 22 he received a “verbal order” from the head of the Adif area to withdraw the rail coupons and transfer them to the base located in Hornachuelos. He also declared, the document states, that tests were carried out on the aforementioned rails and that the tests were harsh “but not destructive.”
They acted days before judicial authorization
It so happens that among the coupons containing the welds on which these tests were carried out, there could be those that the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) intended to analyze, which is also investigating the details of the accident in which 46 people died. According to the Civil Guard, on January 30 they were informed that part of the damaged material had been moved to the Adif base in Hornachuelos, which is why on February 2 they sent an email to Adif warning not to do so. “no type of action on welding without prior authorization.”
“It means that until January 28, 2026, Adif was not informed that it had authorization to access the accident area,” reads the letter from the Assembly Institute, which shows that the removal of said pieces occurred, therefore, six days before the manager received the go-ahead of the head of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Montoro.
“In view of the above, the instructor considers that ADIF personnel carried out different operations aimed at the extraction and transfer of material from the accident area to the Hornachuelos maintenance base (Córdoba) and carried out different tests on the material, without warning or requesting it“concluded the Civil Guard.
“Immediate restitution”
Based on this report, the instructor wrote an order on February 10 in which she reprimanded Adif for taking the material from the damaged trains and warned him that he could incur criminal liability if he did not return everything removed. “immediately.” In her ruling, Judge Cristina Pastor asked the public company to refrain from carrying out “any operation” that had to do with the transfer of material, thus following the instructions of the Civil Guard.
“Adif is required to refrain from carrying out any operation aimed at the extraction and transfer of the related material and of interest for the investigation of the case and carrying out any test on the extracted material, if not subject to prior judicial authorization, as well as the immediate restitution of the material in their possession, all under the threat of incurring criminal liability that may be appropriate,” the judge explained.