It is possible that the number of victims will increase in the near future. Rescuers do not stop working at the site of one of the biggest accidents in the country. Dozens of people are still missing.
Recall that on the night of March 1, a high-speed train en route from the metropolitan city of Athens to Thessaloniki, carrying about 350 passengers, collided with an oncoming freight train. The incident happened near the village of Larisa.
After the accident, part of the wagons derailed, a fire broke out. People had to break the windows to get out. According to some reports, the temperature in one of the cars reached 1300 degrees Celsius.
According to local media, most of the victims of the tragedy were students who, after long vacations, returned from their places of origin to educational institutions. Thus, the age of 75% of the dead is no more than 24 years old. With criminologists struggling to identify the remains, some relatives of the victims have to take DNA tests.
The cause of the disaster was the human factor. An error was made when changing tracks, due to which two trains ended up on the same route. Station chief Larisa is arrested. He will appear in court soon. Now investigators are working with him. According to preliminary information, the man admitted guilt in the act. The inmate is charged with multiple criminal articles at once, including “negligent murder” and “negligent infliction of bodily harm.” It should be noted that the defendant was only appointed to the post of station master a few months ago after a short retraining.
Many railway workers quit their jobs in protest. Disgruntled say local authorities have repeatedly ignored their calls for increased security measures at stations. Thus, the electronic traffic control system has long ceased to function, therefore all manipulations in it are carried out manually. Apparently, this incident may reveal big problems in the Greek state railway sector.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the scene of the tragedy. The politician confirmed that the accident was someone’s fault. Later, the Greek Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, was forced to resign. “This is what I consider it my duty to do as a minimal sign of respect for the memory of the people who left so unjustly, and to take responsibility for the eternal mistakes of the state and the Greek political system,” he said. According to the head of the transport department, the competent authorities will carry out a thorough investigation into the incident. Three days of mourning have been declared on the territory of the Greek state.
Greece’s new infrastructure and transport minister, Yorgos Gerapetritis, has already announced the creation of a special committee to investigate the technical causes of the disaster.
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