The stationmaster involved in Greece’s deadliest train crash will appear in court on Sunday accused of placing two trains going in opposite directions on the same platform after his appearance on Saturday was postponed.
At least 57 people died when a passenger train struck a freighter late Tuesday in Tempe, 235 miles north of Athens.
The government blames human error and the 59-year-old stationmaster faces charges of negligent homicide and assault and obstructing traffic.
Days of protests against the alleged lack of safety measures in the Greek rail network took place after the disaster.
Stephanos Pantzartzidis, the station master’s lawyer, told reporters waiting outside the court in the central Greek city of Larissa on Saturday that “very important new evidence has emerged, forcing us to postpone” his client’s testimony or affidavit request a statement.
Tuesday’s train accident was the deadliest on record in Greece, killing at least 57 people, 54 of whom have been identified
Workers, assisted by a crane, try to clear debris from the train tracks after the collision in Tempe, north of Athens
The authorities have not released the name of the accused stationmaster.
Funerals for some of the people killed in the crash, many in their teens and 20s, were held in northern Greece.
The force of the crash and a resulting fire have complicated identification of the victims, which is being done through DNA testing of next of kin.
Some families have yet to receive the remains of their loved ones. Police said 54 people had been positively identified.
Rallies protesting the conditions that led to the tragedy continued on Saturday.
A peaceful rally in central Athens organized by the Communist Party youth wing drew more than a thousand people.
Many also gathered in Athens to mourn those who lost their lives in the tragedy. They were pictured lighting candles and releasing black balloons.
Also on Saturday, one of the three members of an expert panel set up by the government to investigate and draw up a report on the collision resigned after opposition parties and some media criticized his appointment.
Thanasis Ziliaskopoulos was the chairman and chief executive officer of the country’s rail operator from 2010 to 2015 and is currently the head of the Greek agency responsible for the privatization of state assets.
A rally organized by a railway union is also planned for Sunday in Athens.
The union, which organizes ongoing labor strikes, has called on the public to participate.
People stage a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens, Greece on Friday after the crash
Citizens marched in Athens to protest for the deaths of at least 57 people when a passenger train and a freight train collided
Firefighters and rescue workers operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa, Greece, Wednesday March 1, 2023
Debris from trains lies on the train tracks after a collision in Tempe, some 376 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens, near the city of Larissa, Greece, on Wednesday March 1, 2023
People hold candles and black balloons to honor the 57 victims of Greece’s deadliest train crash during a protest in front of Parliament in Athens, Greece, March 3, 2023
In Greece, people are gathering to mourn the loss of 57 people and call for changes in the rail industry
Greek media have published damning reports of mismanagement and infrastructure neglect on Greece’s railways.
Protesters blame the government’s underinvestment in the railways, a result of austerity measures between 2010 and 2017, and the railway operator for Tuesday’s crash.
In the violent collision, train cars were thrown off the tracks, crushed and burst into flames when a high-speed passenger train carrying more than 350 people traveling at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour crashed head-on into a freight train.
A former railway workers’ union chairman, Panayotis Paraskevopoulos, told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the signaling system in the area where the accident happened six years ago went down and was never repaired.
Station masters and train drivers communicate via radio and points are operated manually over parts of the main line from the capital Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
The stationmaster, who used to work as a porter at the state-owned Hellenic Railways, was transferred to a desk job at the education ministry in 2011 when Greece’s creditors called for job cuts at the railway.
In June 2022 he returned to the company and in January, after five months of training, was appointed station master in Larissa, a major railway junction.
Fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis previously told the media that the collision caused fires of such high temperatures of 1300C that it was “difficult to identify the people who were inside”.
Flags were flown at half-mast across the country on Friday during a three-day official national mourning.
At universities, demonstrators also covered the entrances of several universities with black cloths.
White roses were thrown on the tracks of Larissa train station, Al Jazeera reported.
Police raided a railway coordination office in Larissa on Friday and removed evidence as part of an ongoing investigation.
The since-privatized rail and freight operator, renamed Hellenic Train, is now owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11821373/Station-master-involved-Greeces-deadliest-train-crash-killed-57-appear-court-Sunday.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 Station master implicated in Greece’s deadliest train crash that killed 57 people to appear in court on Sunday
