The station master, implicated in a fatal error that led to a train collision that claimed the lives of at least 57 people in Greece on Tuesday, was remanded in custody on Sunday. In Larissa, the town closest to the scene of this accident, he was charged with his alleged responsibility in “the death of a large number of people”, a crime punishable by a sentence ranging from ten years in prison to life imprisonment, according to the Greek Penal Code.
Vassilis Samaras, 59, whose identity has been revealed by the Ministry of Transport, has admitted responsibility for the head-on collision between a train carrying 342 passengers and ten railway employees, linking Athens to Thessaloniki in the north of the country , and a convoy of goods. The two trains collided head-on when they had been on the same track for several kilometres.
“We feel immense rage! »
But the demonstrators, Sunday in Athens, demanded that the responsibilities be sought in the presumed state of dilapidation of the railway equipment, which left the fate of the passengers in the hands of an inexperienced station master. “Down with murderous governments! », « It was not a human error! “We read on the banners brandished by the approximately 12,000 people who shouted their anger on Syntagma Square, the large esplanade in front of the Parliament of the Greek capital. Protesters released hundreds of black balloons to pay tribute to the victims.
This drama aroused immense anger at the negligence and shortcomings in the railways. And the Athenian rally, the fourth since the accident, degenerated into violent incidents. Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, AFP journalists found.
“We feel immense rage! “, summarized in the procession Michalis Hasiotis, president of the union of chartered accountants. “The greed, the lack of measures taken for the protection of passengers has led to the worst railway tragedy in our country”.
“Nothing is going well in this country, the hospitals are dying, the schools are closing, the forests are burning… Who are they kidding? added Nikos Tsikalakis, president of a railway union. Most of the victims were young people and students returning to Thessaloniki, the major university city, after a long weekend.
On television, heartbreaking images of parents in tears, desperately waiting in front of a hospital for information on the fate of their children, also contributed to casting opprobrium on the authorities and their management, deemed calamitous, of this disaster.
The Prime Minister asks for forgiveness
On Sunday morning, before a religious ceremony at the Orthodox Cathedral in Athens, Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked the families of the victims for forgiveness in a solemn address. “As Prime Minister, I owe everyone, but especially the relatives of the victims, (to ask) for forgiveness,” he wrote.
“In the Greece of 2023, it is not possible for two trains to run in opposite directions on the same line and for no one to notice.” “We cannot, do not want and must not hide behind human error” attributed to the station master, he insisted.
The lack of experience of the station master has indeed been denounced since the day after the tragedy. According to Greek media, he had received only a short training before finding himself alone as station master, while traffic on this line was intense due to a long weekend. Searches had been carried out in the station of Larissa. According to a judicial source, the investigation also aims “to initiate criminal proceedings, if necessary, against members of the management of the company” Hellenic Train, the Greek railways.
“Assassins” written in red on the facade of Hellenic Train
The burials of victims also continued on Sunday in immense emotion. At the small Rapsani station, near the scene of the accident in the center of the country, parents of students placed red and white carnations and lit candles on the tracks.
The anger is primarily directed at Hellenic Train. The word “Assassins” was painted in red letters on a window at the headquarters in Athens on Friday. The company is blamed for numerous negligence and shortcomings that led to this disaster described as a “national tragedy” by the authorities.
She defended herself on Saturday evening, claiming to have “been present from the first moments on the scene” and to have set up “a call center (…) to provide information”. Hellenic Train was bought in 2017 by the Italian public group Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane (FS) as part of the privatization program demanded by Greece’s creditors during the economic crisis (2009-2018). Union representatives of the railways had sounded the alarm three weeks ago on the risk of accident.