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Experts investigating the deadly rail collision in southern Spain<\/a>, which killed 45 people and left dozens more injured, believe the accident may have happened after one of the trains passed over a damaged section of rail.<\/p>\n The disaster occurred near the Andaluc\u00edan town of Adamuz on Sunday, when a high-speed train operated by Iryo, a private company, derailed and collided with an oncoming high-speed train operated by the state rail company, Renfe.<\/p>\n A preliminary report published by the Rail Accidents Investigation Commission (CIAF) on Friday found nicks in the wheels on the right-hand side of the three front carriages of the Iryo train consistent with an impact with the top of the rail.<\/p>\n \u201cThese nicks in the wheels and the observed deformation in the rail are consistent with the rail being fractured: with the rail\u2019s continuity interrupted, the section before the break would initially bear the full weight of the wheel, causing that part of the rail to sag slightly,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the section of rail after the break would not be acting in unison with the section before it, a step would momentarily form between the two sides of the fracture, which would strike the wheel rim.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the available information, the report added: \u201cWe can hypothesise that the rail fracture occurred prior to the passage of the Iryo train involved in the accident and therefore prior to the derailment.\u201d But the CIAF also stressed that the theory was provisional and would be subject to further testing and investigation.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s transport minister, \u00d3scar Puente, told reporters on Friday afternoon that if the cause of the accident had been a damaged rail, the fault must have occurred \u201cin the minutes or hours before the train derailment and, therefore \u2026 could not be detected\u201d.<\/p>\n Puente also said investigators were looking into whether the rail may have suffered a defect during its manufacture.<\/p>\n Pedro Marco de la Pe\u00f1a, the president of Spain\u2019s state rail infrastructure administrator, Adif, said the batch of track in question had been identified and would be carefully tested.<\/p>\n Two days after the Adamuz accident, a train driver was killed and 37 people injured when a train was derailed<\/a> by the collapse of a retaining wall near Gelida in Catalonia.<\/p>\n