On Sunday, a stationmaster was charged with negligent homicide and jailed pending trial for causing Greece’s deadliest train disaster. At the same time, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized for any responsibility the government may bear for the tragedy.
The stationmaster directed two trains travelling in opposite directions onto the same track, leading to the collision that killed at least 57 people, many of whom were in their teens and 20s.
The 59-year-old stationmaster spent 7 1/2 hours Sunday testifying about the events leading up to the crash before being charged and ordered held
. According to Greek media reports, the automated signalling system in the area of the crash was not functioning, making the stationmaster’s mistake possible.
The prime minister promised a swift investigation of the collision and said the new Greek transportation minister would release a safety improvement plan. A commission also will be named to investigate decades of mismanagement of the country’s railway system.
Greece’s railways have long suffered from chronic mismanagement, including lavish spending on projects that were eventually abandoned or significantly delayed.
With state railway company Hellenic Railways billions of euros in debt, maintenance work was put off.
A retired railway union leader told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the signalling system in the area monitored by the Larissa stationmaster malfunctioned six years ago and was never repaired.
Police and prosecutors have not identified the stationmaster, but Hellenic Railways revealed the stationmaster’s name in an announcement suspending the company inspector who appointed him. The stationmaster, a former porter with the railway company, was transferred to a Ministry of Education desk job in 2011 when Greece’s creditors demanded reductions in the number of public employees. He was transferred back to the railway company in mid-2022 and started a 5-month course to train as a station master. Upon completing the course, he was assigned to Larissa on Jan. 23, according to his own Facebook post.
However, he spent the next month rotating among other stations before returning to Larissa in late February, days before the Feb. 28 collision, Greek media reported.
According to authorities, railway unions organized a protest rally in central Athens attended by about 12,000 people.
Five people were arrested, and seven police officers were injured when a group of more than 200 masked, black-clad individuals started throwing pieces of marble, rocks, bottles and firebombs at officers, who gave chase along a central avenue in the city while using tear gas and stun grenades. In Thessaloniki, about 3,000 people attended two protest rallies. Several crash victims were students at the city’s Aristotle University, Greece’s largest, with over 50,000 students.
»Greece’s deadliest train disaster«
↯↯↯Read More On The Topic On TDPel Media ↯↯↯