The Commission Investigating Railway Accidents (CIAF) has detected nicks on the wheel flanges of the first five coaches of the Iryo train that came off the rails at Adamuz (Córdoba), as well as on the two or three trains that ran through the critical spot beforehand, reports El País.
These notches, some as large as a coin, may tie in with the rail break at milepost 318 on the Madrid-Sevilla line at Adamuz, the site of the derailment.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente confirmed unusual wheel flange scoring on Telecinco, pointing to possible causes like objects on the line or the onset of an infrastructure failure, though no firm conclusions yet.
Had the rail fractured before the Iryo arrived, track circuits would have picked it up and safety systems would have blocked train movements.
The probe focuses on the initial severed rail segment, featuring a 30 cm cut potentially from a faulty weld or as a result of the derailment.
CIAF teams inspected wheels of other trains yesterday at the Santa Catalina depot (Madrid), while the Civil Guard took casts of the marks for rail comparison; Iryo, Hitachi (the builder), Adif and Renfe are all involved.