The death toll from a train crash in Greece has risen to 57

While the death toll from the train crash in Greece has already risen to 57, railway workers’ unions have announced a 24-hour strike for this Thursday over the deteriorating sector and criticizing the fact that the only employee detained was a state-owned railway company.

Citizens’ dissatisfaction is, however, also reflected in protest which happened on Wednesday evening in front of the office Hellenic train, the company that manages the railways in Greece. Hundreds of protesters accused the government due to the privatization of the company in 2017. and there were various conflicts when the group threw Molotov cocktails at the police, who responded with tear gas.

Death victims

The head of the forensic department of the city of Larissa, Rubini Leontari, reported that 57 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the two trains. The coroner told private radio station Realfm that they were transferred to the morgue this Thursday 14 charred corpses, bringing the total number of victims to 57, as 43 lifeless bodies arrived at the forensic department of Larisa by Wednesday. So far, the official number of victims of the railway tragedy was 46, according to the latest report of the Fire Department.

Leontari further noted that apart from the corpses in the morgue there are 10 bags with individual human fragments that have not yet been identified. «We took a DNA test from every human member,” said the coroner. “In this way, the member belonging to the found corpse can be attributed to this lifeless body. If the other members cannot be attributed, we will have their DNA,” he added.

Conservative government spokesman Yannis Ikonomu said at a press conference this afternoon that only nine bodies had been identified so far.

Fifty-seven people are still hospitalized, six of them in intensive care. Most of the victims were young students returning to Thessaloniki after a festive extended weekend.

Security systems

Moreover, he recognized that the safety systems did not work on the specific part where the accident occurred ? like an electronic guide or sign? who work in other sectors of the Greek railways.

The accident happened shortly before midnight on Tuesday local time (11:00 p.m. in Spain), when two trains collided – one carrying 342 passengers and 10 railway employees and the other a freight train with two drivers near the town of Tempe, about 300 kilometers from Athens.

The Greek prime minister declared three days of national mourning, noting that “responsibility will be clarified” and that “the tragedy, unfortunately, is primarily the result of human error.”

Larisa’s prosecution has charges the station manager of this city’s trains for “manslaughter” and other crimes that could result, if the 59-year-old man is found guilty, a sentence of ten years to life imprisonment.

According to the Greek media, the railway employee confessed already on Wednesday, after his arrest your responsibility for the error who placed a passenger train on the same track from which a freight convoy with two drivers was coming.

The strike called for this Thursday by the railroad union is precisely to condemn the state of affairs in the sector, such as the lack of safety systems, signaling and electronic guidance, which could prevent this type of accident.

In the meantime, numerous relatives of the victims came forward will file charges against both executives of the private company Hellenic Train and the state Agency for Greek Railways (OSE), as announced by at least two law firms that had contact with the relatives of the deceased.

The Greek railway, Hellenic Train, is operated by the Italian state company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. However, all other infrastructure – including security systems – depends on OSE.