A station master accused of causing the worst rail disaster in Greek history was charged on Sunday with negligent homicide and jailed pending trial, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized for any responsibility the government could have on tragedy.
An examining judge and a prosecutor agreed that several counts of homicide and bodily injury, as well as risks to transportation safety, should be brought against the railroad employee.
At least 57 people, many of them in their teens or early 20s, were killed when a northbound passenger train collided Tuesday night with an oncoming freight train north of the city of Larissa, in central Greece.
The 59-year-old stationmaster allegedly ushered the two trains traveling in opposite directions onto the same track. On Sunday he testified for 7 1/2 hours about the events leading up to the crash before he was charged and ordered to remain in custody.
“My client testified candidly, without fear that doing so would incriminate him,” said Stephanos Pantzartzidis, a lawyer for the stationmaster. “The decision (to arrest him) was already foreseen, given the importance of the case.”
Pantzartzidis hinted that people other than his client shared the blame, saying judges should investigate whether more than one stationmaster should have been working in Larissa at the time of the crash.
“For 20 minutes, he was in charge of (railway) security in the whole of central Greece,” the lawyer said of his client.
The Greek press has reported that the automated signaling system in the crash area was not working, which favored the station manager’s mistake. Station masters on that part of Greece’s central line communicate with each other and train operators with two-way radios, and track changes are operated manually.
The prime minister promised a prompt investigation into the crash, saying Greece’s new transport minister would come up with a new plan to improve safety. Once a new parliament is established, a commission will be set up to investigate decades-long mismanagement of the country’s rail system, Mitsotakis added.
In an opening statement on Wednesday, Mitsotakis had said the crash was the result of “tragic human error.” Opposition parties criticized the statement, accusing the premier of trying to cover up state involvement and trying to make a scapegoat of the inexperienced station chief.
“I owe everyone, in particular the families of the victims, a huge apology, personal and on behalf of all who ruled the country for so many years,” Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “In 2023 it is inconceivable that two trains are traveling in opposite directions on the same track and no one is noticing. We cannot, we do not want to and we must not hide behind human error”.
Police and prosecutors have not released the name of the station chief, as mandated by Greek law. However, Hellenic Railways, also known as OSE, revealed his name on Saturday in an announcement suspending the company inspector who appointed him to the post. The stationmaster has also been suspended.
Greek media have reported that the stationmaster, a former porter for the railway company, was transferred to an education ministry clerical position in 2011, when Greece’s creditors demanded cuts in the number of public employees. The civil servant was transferred back to the railway company in mid-2022 and started a 5-month course to become a station manager.
After completing the course, Larissa was assigned on January 23, according to a post she made on Facebook. However, for the next month he rotated between other stations before returning to Larissa at the end of February, a few days before the clash on the 28th of that month, Greek media reported.
Railway unions staged a protest in central Athens on Sunday, which drew some 12,000 people, according to authorities.
Five people were arrested and seven police officers were injured when a group of more than 200 masked and black-clad individuals began hurling chunks of marble, rocks, bottles and firebombs at the officers, who launched a chase along a downtown avenue. , firing tear gas and flash grenades.
In Thessaloniki, some 3,000 people attended two demonstrations. Several of the victims of the crashes were students at Aristotle University, the largest in Greece, which has more than 50,000 students.
The largest protest, organized by left-wing activists, advanced until it reached a government building. No incidents were reported in that event.
At the other, organized by Communist Party members at the White Tower, the city’s signature monument, there was a brief scuffle with police when protesters tried to place a blanket over the monument.
“The Communist Party organized a symbolic protest today in front of the White Tower in order to denounce the Tempe crime, because it is a premeditated crime, a crime committed by the company and the bourgeois state that supports these companies,” Giannis told him. Delis, a communist lawmaker, told The Associated Press.
