Greek PM apologizes to victims’ families after 57 killed in train crash

Athens:

The Greek prime minister apologized to the families of the 57 people killed in the country’s worst train crash on Sunday before a huge rally of students and rail workers in Athens.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message addressed to the nation, “As Prime Minister, I owe it to everyone, but especially to the relatives of the victims (to ask for forgiveness).”

The accident between passenger and freight trains has sparked widespread outrage across Greece.

“For the Greece of 2023, two trains going in different directions cannot run on the same line and no one notices,” Mitsotakis said in a message posted on his Facebook page.

Relatives and loved ones of those killed in Tuesday’s devastating train crash were also expected to gather on Sunday for a memorial outside Larissa station, central Greece, near the crash site.

The station master implicated in the disaster was due to appear in court on Sunday, a hearing adjourned from the previous day, where he could face charges of manslaughter by negligence.

Hellenic Trains, the rail company that has become the center of some of the anger expressed in the wake of the accident, released a statement late Saturday defending its actions.

Hundreds of people demonstrated during the week outside their Athens headquarters, and a legal source has said that investigators are looking into bringing charges against senior members of the company.

Over the past few days, rail union officials have insisted that they warned the company about safety issues on the line. Tough questions are also being asked of the government for its failure to push through rail safety reforms.

grief and anger

Demonstrations and demonstrations across Greece have expressed a combination of grief and anger at the disaster, which occurred when a passenger train and a freight train collided.

Sunday’s demonstration in Athens will take place in the capital’s Syntagma Square next to the parliament, where there had already been clashes between police and angry protesters on Friday night.

Candle marches and ceremonies were held in memory of the victims of the crash, many of whom were students returning from the weekend break.

“What happened was not an accident, but a crime,” said one of the protestors, 23-year-old Sophia Hatzopoulos, a philosophy student in Thessaloniki.

“We cannot watch all this happen and remain indifferent.”

At least nine youths studying at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki were among those killed on the passenger train.

In case ‘new elements’

Larissa’s station master, whose identity has not been made public, has accepted responsibility for the accident, which happened after the two trains ran on the same track for several kilometres.

The 59-year-old man, if charged with negligent homicide, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

But his lawyer, Stefanos Pantzartsidis, insisted on Saturday: “In the case, there are important new elements that need to be examined.”

Details have emerged in the Greek media regarding the station master’s relative inexperience in the post and the fact that he was left unsupervised during a busy holiday weekend.

security warning

“These are particularly difficult days for the country and for our company,” Hellenic Trains said in a statement late Saturday.

The company said its employees were immediately on the scene of the disaster and have since been working closely with rescuers and authorities.

Kostas Genidounias, head of the train drivers’ union OSE, has said he had already warned authorities about safety failures on the line where the accident occurred.

And union leaders on the Hellenic train raised the alarm three weeks in advance.

He said at the time, “We are not going to wait for an accident to happen to see those responsible shed crocodile tears.”

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