SPAINISH RAIL CATASTROPHE LEAVES AT LEAST 69 PEOPLE DEAD

At 8:30 Wednesday morning, a computer malfunction knocked out the safety system across a 39-mile stretch of Spain's Madrid-Seville high-speed line, and six trains stopped where they were. That is the system doing the one thing you want it to do when it breaks. Twenty-three minutes later, a Renfe AVE carrying 397 passengers hit the back of a stationary Iryo train carrying 147. At least 69 people are dead. Fifty were still hospitalized Thursday, fifteen of them critical. The middle part is where Spain's government runs out of road. When the system fails, the control center takes over, and the control center cleared the Renfe train to resume with no speed restriction while a stop signal was still active on that line. Transport Minister Oscar Puente called the order "inexplicable" and said flatly that it was the wrong decision. He also said the drivers were not at fault, which leaves exactly one room full of screens holding the bag. Investigators are still checking the speed. Puente said it may have been as high as 124 mph. This is the second mass-casualty collision on this line this year, same two operators both times. January's crash near Adamuz killed 46. That is nine months, one corridor, and 115 people. Spain is observing three days of national mourning through Saturday, and protesters have already turned up in Madrid, which is not a mystery either.

Why you should give a shit: A broken computer made the correct call and stopped every train on that line, then a person un-made it, so the thing Spain has to fix isn't the hardware, it's who gets to say "go anyway" and at what speed.