They returned tired but confident, with their heads still immersed in the questions of the competition and tiredness, but also the hope of a stable position in the future. On the Alvia train heading from Madrid to Huelva, in Andalusia, which was struck on Sunday evening in the tragedy in Adamuz, there were also many 18-year-olds and twenty-year-olds returning home after having taken the tests to become assistants in the state penitentiary institutions.
Expression of a generation suspended between sacrifices and expectations, struck at the moment when the future finally seemed within reach. “They died dreaming of a future”, repeats shocked Raquel Lopez, head of a historic academy for preparing for competitions. Many of his students were also on board. Some were saved, others were seriously injured, at least two will never return.
“It’s a devastating blow, we’re dismayed,” he assures, recalling the dramatic hours experienced on Sunday evening, when the students’ families began calling in desperation to get news of their children, who they couldn’t contact on their cell phones.”
Among the survivors is Lola Beltran, a young woman from Huelva, who is only now able to give a name to the horror she experienced.
“Only afterwards I was able to realize the true extent of what happened,” she says, save for a coincidence. «My ticket was for carriage three, one of the most affected, but I moved to carriage five to be with one of my companions. We came back talking about the exam, about the sensations. I thought I did well, but all this is relative now”, he adds.
At 7.39pm the Alvia collided with the derailed Iryo carriages, which invaded the opposite lane of the high-speed line. Then chaos.
“When we broke the windows to get out of the train and I saw the carriages in front ended up in the ditch, I understood that the accident was much more serious than we thought,” recalls the student. «We had to break the windows with hammers to get out and get away on the tracks. Inside there was total chaos: screams, seats uprooted, people injured.”
In total confusion, Lola called for help. «It was my brother who warned me that there was a second train involved in the accident. He told me: Lola, call them back, they don’t know you’re there.”
The preparators also traveled with the boys returning to Huelva: Ricardo Chamorro Caliz, 57 years old, identified among the 42 confirmed victims. While Andres Gallardo Vaz is still missing.
Their photos filled social networks for hours, in the hope that they would be found alive among the injured and surviving passengers. The tragedy particularly affected Huelva: at least 17 of the 42 confirmed victims were originally from the Andalusian town and were returning home.