LARISSA 9Greece), March 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that a “tragic human error” was probably responsible for a train collision that left at least 38 dead in the country’s worst rail tragedy.
Two carriages were crushed and a third engulfed in fire when a passenger train and a freight train collided late on Tuesday near the central city of Larissa, on a route plagued by years of safety warnings.
The fire department added that 57 people were still hospitalised, six of them in intensive care, while several were missing.
“Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error,” Mitsotakis said in a televised address.
He called it a “terrible train accident without precedent” in Greece that would be “fully” investigated.
The accident left a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass in a field.
The passenger train, carrying more than 350 people, had been travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Greece’s transport minister submitted his resignation just hours after the accident.
“When something so tragic happens, we cannot continue as if nothing had happened,” Kostas Karamanlis said in a public statement.
Protests were held Wednesday evening at the Thessaloniki rail station, the city of Larissa and outside the Athens offices of the railway’s Italian-owned operating company, Hellenic Train.
In Athens, riot police fired tear gas at protesters throwing rocks at the offices of Hellenic Train.
The company said it was working closely with authorities and has offered “financial support” to the passengers.
The 59-year-old station master of Larissa was arrested several hours after the accident and charged with negligent homicide. He will appear before a prosecutor on Thursday.
Government spokesman Yiannis Economou said the two trains had been running on the same track for “several kilometres”.
Five years after Greek rail operator Trainose was sold to Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane and became Hellenic Train, safety systems are still not fully automated.
Greece’s 2,200-kilometre railway infrastructure is overseen by state company OSE.
Last month, the European Commission referred Greece to court for failing to sign and publish an agreement with OSE required under a 2012 directive.
The president of the train drivers’ union, Kostas Genidounias, said that the accident “would have been avoided if the safety systems were working”.
The train was mostly carrying students returning to Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.
Some 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to Greek emergency services.
Neighbouring Albania, Italy, Serbia and Turkey were among states to send condolences, as did China, the United States, France, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the Vatican.
Nicosia said two Cypriots were among the missing.
Authorities have declared three days of national mourning. — NNN-AGENCIES
