Station boss accused of train accident in Greece in which 57 people died

A station master charged today with causing Greece's deadliest train crash was ruled manslaughter and remanded in custody pending trial, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized for any responsibility the Greek government may have for the tragedy.

The investigating judge and the prosecutor agreed that an indictment should be filed against the railway employee on several counts for murder, causing bodily harm and endangering traffic safety.

At least 57 people, many of them under the age of 20, were killed when a passenger and freight train collided head-on at full speed on Tuesday night north of the city of Larissa in central Greece.

Allegedly, the 59-year-old station master directed the two trains, which were going in opposite directions, to the same track. Today, he testified for seven and a half hours about the events that led to the accident, after which an indictment was filed and he was ordered to be detained.

"My client testified truthfully, without fear that it will incriminate him," Stefanos Pancarcidis, the station chief's lawyer, told reporters, adding that the decision on detention was expected, given the importance of the case.

Pancarcidis implied that, in addition to his client, others share the blame, saying the judges should investigate whether more than one station chief should have been working in Larisa at the time of the crash.

"For 20 minutes, he was in charge of (train) security all over central Greece," the lawyer said of his client.

Greek media reported that the automated signaling system in the area of ​​the accident was not working, which allowed the error of the station master. Station masters along that section of the main trunk line in Greece communicate with each other and with train drivers via two-way radio, and switches are operated manually.

The prime minister promised a quick investigation into the crash and said Greece's new transport minister would announce a plan to improve safety. When the new composition of the Greek Parliament is formed after the spring elections, a commission will be appointed to investigate decades of mismanagement of the railway system, Mitsotakis said.

In his first statement on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said the accident was the result of "tragic human error". Opposition parties rejected that assessment, accusing the prime minister of trying to cover up the role of the state and making a "scapegoat" out of the inexperienced station manager.

"I owe everyone, especially the relatives of the victims, a big apology, both personally and on behalf of everyone who has governed the country for years," Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook on Sunday. "In the year 2023, it is unthinkable that two trains are moving in different directions on the same track and no one notices. We cannot, do not want and must not hide behind human error," wrote the Prime Minister.

Greek Railways, which was bought by Italy's state-owned railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017, has long been plagued by chronic mismanagement, including massive spending on projects that were eventually abandoned or significantly delayed, Greek media reported on the domestic railway company " Hellenic Railways" in billions of euros of debt, with maintenance work that has been delayed.

Retired railway union leader Panayotis Paraskevopoulos told the Athens newspaper "Katimerini" that the signaling system in the area overseen by the Larissa station master broke down six years ago and has not been repaired.

Police and prosecutors have not identified the station chief, in accordance with Greek law. However, Hellenic Railways, formerly OSE, revealed the name of the station chief, in a statement about the suspension of the company's inspector who appointed him.

Greek media reported that the station master, a former porter at a railway company, was transferred to a job at the Ministry of Education in 2011, when Greek creditors demanded cuts in the public sector. The 59-year-old was brought back to the rail company in mid-2022 and began a five-month training course to become a station master.

After completing the course, he was assigned to Larisa on January 23, according to his own post on Facebook. However, he spent the next month on rotation at other stations, before returning to Larisa in late February, a few days before the February 28 crash, Greek media reported.

Railway unions organized a protest rally in central Athens on Sunday, attended by about 12.000 people, according to authorities.

Five people were arrested and seven police officers were injured when a group of more than 200 masked, black-clad anarchists who usually disrupt public gatherings began hurling marbles, rocks, bottles and firebombs at the officers, who chased them down Central Avenue. using tear gas, gas and shock bombs.

There were about 3.000 people at two protest rallies in Thessaloniki. Several victims of the accident were students of the Aristotle University there, the largest in Greece, with over 50.000 students.

A larger protest, organized by left-wing activists, marched to a state building. No incidents were reported at the event.

In another, organized by members of the Communist Party near the White Tower, the monument of Thessaloniki, there was a brief scuffle with the police when demonstrators tried to place a banner on the monument.

"The Communist Party today organized a symbolic protest in front of the White Tower to condemn the crime in Tembi, because it is a premeditated crime, a crime by a company and a bourgeois state that supports such companies," Janis Delis, a Communist lawmaker, told the Associated Press.