LARISSA, GREECE (AFP) – The Greek government yesterday acknowledged failures in state management of its rail system, following a train collision that killed 48 and has triggered angry protests.
As crews continued to work in the charred wreckage at the crash site, the local station master admitted negligence in Greece’s worst-ever rail disaster and the government has apologised.
An investigation would examine the “chronic delays in implementing railway works, delays caused by chronic public sector malaise and decades of failure”, said government spokesman Yiannis Economou.
The crash happened late on Tuesday when a freight and passenger train were allowed to speed towards each other for several kilometres before colliding near a tunnel outside Larissa in central Greece.
The 59-year-old station manager was arrested after officials determined “human error” was involved in the collision in which two carriages were demolished and a restaurant car caught fire, trapping many victims inside.
“I believe the responsibility, the negligence, the error has been confessed by the station master,” Economou told reporters in Athens. Five years after the state-owned Greek rail operator Trainose was privatised and sold to Italy’s Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane and became Hellenic Train, safety systems on the Athens-Thessaloniki line are still not fully automated.
Train unionists have said safety shortcomings for the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line had been known for years.
The country’s transport minister resigned on Wednesday amid claims that safety warnings on the line had been neglected for years, and his replacement yesterday offered his “apologies” to families of the victims and vowed a “complete evaluation of the political system and the state”.
“I want to say, while looking these people straight in the eye, that there will be an inquiry and everything will be presented to Greek citizens,” Giorgos Gerapetritis said.
A fire department spokeswoman told AFP that rescue crews had worked all night in search for survivors, but chances of finding more were dwindling. “Time is not on our side,” she said.
After visiting the site on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that “Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error”. Passengers described scenes of horror and chaos from the crash, many dodging smashed glass and debris as the train keeled over, and breaking windows to climb out.
