Athens (EFE)
The 59-year-old defendant is charged with the alleged commission of serial “negligent homicide” and causing bodily harm, in addition to a felony for disturbing the safety of transportation traffic resulting in the death of several people.
According to the Greek media, the railway employee already admitted on Wednesday, after being arrested, his responsibility for the mistake that placed a passenger train with 342 passengers and 10 crew members on the same track as a freight train with two machinists.
So far, the bodies of 47 people have been recovered from the remains of the railways.
After the accusation, the station manager’s lawyer, Stéfanos Patzartzidis, pointed out that his client “is devastated on a human level” and that “he has assumed responsibility within the framework that corresponds to him.”
In this context, he stressed that “there are many responsibilities that have to be assumed” by other people as well.
The defendant decided not to testify today and requested an extension to testify next Saturday, which was granted.
According to the Greek media, citing police sources, the official admitted yesterday that he put the train on the wrong track, that he did not understand his mistake and realized what he had done only when he found out about the accident.
Fifty-seven people remain hospitalized, six of them in intensive care. Most of the victims were young university students returning to Thessaloniki after a festive long weekend.
The railway workers’ union has called a 24-hour strike this Thursday to protest the situation in the sector, denouncing the lack of safety systems, such as signaling and electronic guidance, which could prevent this type of accident.
Greece’s railways, Hellenic Train, are operated by the Italian state company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. However, all other infrastructures – including security systems – depend on the state-owned Greek Railways Agency (OSE).
Firefighters search for survivors
Dozens of firefighters have continued their work to search for survivors, while the latest death toll has already risen to 47.
Another 57 people remain hospitalized, six of them in intensive care. Most of the victims were young university students returning to Thessaloniki after a festive long weekend.
The authorities have asked relatives of the travelers to provide DNA tests since many of the bodies recovered are so burned that they cannot be identified in any other way.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that “the tragedy, unfortunately, is due above all to human error.”
The president of the train drivers’ union, Kostas Geridunias, denounced on ERT public television the state of deterioration of the railway line that connects the two largest cities in Greece.
“Nothing works, everything is done manually, we are in manual mode on the entire Athens Thessaloniki axis. Traffic lights don’t work either. If they did, drivers would see red lights and stop on time,” he noted.
For these reasons, train drivers depend almost entirely on the information they receive from station managers, without an automated system that alerts them to possible errors.
The railway workers’ union has called a 24-hour strike to protest the situation in the sector.
Greece’s railways, Hellenic Train, are operated by the Italian state company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. However, all other infrastructure – including security systems – is run by the state-owned Greek Railways Agency (OSE).