Anger is growing in Greece over poor rail infrastructure

When the death toll in the worst train accident in Greek history already rises to 57, the pain and indignation among citizens grows and turns into a wave of protests against the government for poor rural railway, while railway workers went on strike due to the decline of the sector and criticizing the fact that the only detained employee was the state railway carrier. The accident could embarrass the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis campaign for the general elections, the date of which has not yet been determined, but the press states April 9 as the most likely.

The discontent of the Greeks was also reflected in the protests that were repeated this Thursday in Syntagma Square, where the seat of the parliament in Athens is located, after those that took place in front of the office on Wednesday evening Hellenic train, the company that manages the railways in Greece. Hundreds of protesters protested the lack of a modern rail network and criticized the government for privatizing the company, which was sold in 2017 to the Italian group Ferrovie dello Statto. The concentration led to clashes when the police responded with tear gas to the throwing of Molotov cocktails. In Thessaloniki, several students held a protest with slogans such as “It’s not an accident, it’s a crime”. In Nafplio (Peloponnese), students of fine arts demonstrated under a banner that read: “Privatization kills. Our dead, their gains.”

The railway union condemns the lack of safety systems, signaling and electronic guidance that could have prevented the accident. Several relatives of the victims They have already announced that they will file appeals both against the executives of Hellenic Train and the state Agency for Greek Railways (OSE).

The spokesman for the conservative government, Yanis Ikonomu, admitted that safety systems, such as electronic guidance or signaling, which exist in other sectors of the Greek railway, were not working in the section where the accident occurred. Although the government acknowledges the poor condition of the infrastructure, Mitsotakis insisted that the accident was attributed to “human error”.

Larissa prosecutors have charged the city’s station manager with “manslaughter” and other crimes that could include, if the 59-year-old man is convicted, a sentence of ten years to life imprisonment. The employee already admitted his responsibility on Wednesday for the mistake that put the passenger train on the same track as the freight convoy. He would have followed procedures to proceed with changing the track of one of the trains, although, he added, the system had not processed the order and he had not noticed, causing the crash.

Debris removal and the search for bodies continue at the scene of the Intercity 62 passenger and freight train crash near the city of Tempe, north of the city of Larissa. The head of the forensics department, Rubini Leontari, reported that they were transferred to the morgue this Thursday 14 charred corpses, bringing the total number of deaths to 57. Most are students who returned to Thessaloniki after the ceremonial bridge. Besides the corpses in the morgue there are 10 bags of human fragments which have not yet been identified. It is feared that the number of dead will rise even more.