Train crashes into truck in Spain; 2 dead, 8 hurt

A passenger train crashed into a heavy-duty dump truck in southwestern Spain today, killing two people and injuring eight others, a government official said.

A passenger train crashed into a heavy-duty dump truck in southwestern Spain on Monday, killing two people and injuring eight others, a government official said. The collision occurred about 1 p.m. on Monday near the town of Carmonita, 56 miles (90 kilometers) from the border with Portugal, a regional spokeswoman for Spain's Interior Ministry said. The large truck was supporting work on Spain's bullet train link to Portugal when the three-carriage regional train slammed into it and lifted it partially onto its roof, she said.

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Emergency crews were working to clear the wreckage and investigators were trying to figure out the reason for the crash. A young woman aboard the train and the truck driver were killed, and the seriously injured train driver was taken to Infanta Cristina hospital in the nearby city of Badajoz, the spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry rules. Bullet trains are scheduled to travel from Portugal's capital, Lisbon, to Madrid in under three hours by 2014 despite budget cuts caused by the financial crisis.

High-speed lines will eventually stretch from Portugal's Atlantic coast, through France to Britain and Belgium, providing Europe with fast passenger transport to rival air travel.