The three expert witnesses designated by the court have requested of the judge of the Civil and Criminal Division of the Court of First Instance of Montoro (Córdoba), Plaza número 2, who is responsible for investigating the railway accident in Adamuz in which, on Sunday, January 18, 46 people died and more than 120 were injured, that Adif provide the inspection reports carried out in the Adamuz section prior to and after the accident, as part of a series of actions that they consider it is “necessary to clarify”.
In the same way, they demand all documentation relating to the emergency works file with which the infrastructure was rebuilt, which they claim they do not have “any documentation” for, as well as completing the information already provided by Adif on the file for the supply and transport of ballast for the Track Switch Renewal (phase 2) on the Madrid–Seville High-Speed Line. These are three lots, but, although they have the master file, documentation from the split Lot 2: Base de Calatrava has been sent to them, when the one that affects the section under investigation is Lot 3: Base de Hornachuelos.
In the letter submitted by the expert witnesses, which Europa Press has had access to and which is dated October 28, it is detailed that, with regard to this latter documentation, they request the entire administrative file; the specification sheet for the supply; the Quality Control Plan required of the supplier, and the material acceptance tests carried out on that supply, both by the UTE, as well as by Adif or the ACO.
Regarding the inspection reports between the kilometer points 321,098 and 315,974 on tracks 1 and 2, the technicians request “with special emphasis” the ones carried out before the acceptance of the works—that is, during the execution of the work—since only the results from October 2025 are on record—before the signing of the works acceptance act, on December 19, 2025, 30 days before the accident—and prior controls during the development of the contracts are missing. Likewise, they request the reports that justify the post-emergency-works intervention carried out in the section following the January 18, 2026 accident.
These requests are made as a result of the written submission presented by the procedural representation of Adif on October 20, 2026, in which judicial authorization was requested to carry out certain maintenance actions included in that document, in the context of new track tamping operations. The judge then decided to forward the written submission to the court experts so that they could rule within a period of three days.
The experts consider that the maintenance tasks requested by Adif, linked to infrastructure at level IL (Intervention Limit), are of "unavoidable attention, especially if they are linked with other AL (Alert Limit) in order to carry out the corrective maintenance activity --the track tamping-- in the same action". In their view, "as it is developed at the north end of the Station of Adamuz --between kilometers 316,900 to 317,500, track switches 631, 632 and the diverging track--, it does not interfere with the development of the expert opinion", and therefore they understand that "they can be carried out."
Several relevant doubts about Adif’s actions
However, the three experts warn that these Adif works "raise several doubts" which, within the scope of their work, they consider "relevant" and deem "necessary to clarify --with the timeliness of this intervention--". In this regard, they describe as "at the very least curious that precisely the track switches 631 and 632, on which action is taken at this time, were likewise the subject of the same Execution of Works action corresponding to the Project for the Renewal of Divergences (phase 2) in the high-speed line Madrid-Seville, as the A645 device involved in the accident --in whose union weld to the existing rail of wire 1 of track 1 at kilometer 318,681, the break that occurred takes place--".
They also point out that "in this maintenance action on the 631 and 632 diverging tracks, what is intended is to tamp, therefore, to re-level and adjust the rail profile that has reached at least three points with deformations that are classified in two points of level IL and in one of level AL". "This circumstance is analogous --in that case, Alert Level (AL) with deformation values very close to the classification of Intervention Level IL-- to that referred to in the October 2025 inspections of wire 2 of track 1 in the vicinity of kilometer 318,681 where the weld break occurs," the experts add.
All this leads the experts to question the action of Renovación de Desvíos carried out by Adif, "since the delivery acceptance report for it is signed on December 19, 2025, that is, barely 30 days before the accident, and that in addition it is currently still within the warranty period -- having elapsed as of the date less than two years from its receipt, according to the Pliego de Cláusulas Administrativas Particulares of the Contract". For this reason, they reiterate to the judge the documentary requirements already mentioned.
Background and restrictions on maintenance on the track
The magistrate had already sent the letter from Adif dated October 20 to the court experts, in which the entity requested permission to carry out maintenance work on the track. The Court requested that the technicians issue a report within three days, reminding them that in March the judge ordered the Administrator of Railway Infrastructures to "refrain from carrying out maintenance tasks and other tasks that affect the railway network" in the section of Adamuz, unless prior communication is made to the judicial body 15 days in advance and with the condition of obtaining express authorization.
This decision was adopted after an email sent by Adif on March 2, in which it was reported that maintenance tasks were planned for the night of March 3 to March 4, "consisting in the replacement of a 36-meter-long section of rail at the kilometre point 317,264 of track 2 (direction Madrid)".
In that letter, Adif specified that the work was located at "more than one kilometre from the place where the railway accident occurred on January 18 between the Iryo 6189 and the Alvia 2384, even though they are tasks that will be carried out in an area close to the area of the Analysed Post of Adamuz." The company informed the Court of the intervention one day in advance, indicating that "the rail that is removed will be duly guarded at the Hornachuelos maintenance base, available to any authority or investigation that may require it".
This judicial order was issued after the judge herself ordered Adif to refrain from "carrying out any operation aimed at the extraction and transfer of material related to and of interest for the instruction of the case" into the accident. This was recorded in a decision dated February 10, following the communication from the Guardia Civil that Adif personnel had removed material from the area four days after the accident and had carried out various tests "without notifying him of it, nor requesting it."