A railway inspector was detained

More than a month after a train disaster in central Greece killed 57 people, a Greek railway inspector was detained on Friday March 31 for “disrupting traffic safety” and “manslaughter by negligence”, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has learned. ) from a judicial source. He faces ten years to life in prison.

The inspector is the second railway employee to be accused. The first suspect, the station master, who was on duty at the time of the accident, was charged with the same and was remanded a week after the tragedy that shook the country. He was responsible for a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight vehicle at Tempe, near Larissa.

Without triggering any warning, the two trains traveling on the same track for several kilometers collided head-on and the fire broke out and two locomotives and two wagons of the passenger train were gutted. Among the 57 dead and dozens injured, many young people were returning to the university city of Thessaloniki after a long weekend. The accident happened on the main road connecting Athens and Thessaloniki, the country’s largest city in the north.

Failures and delays

Two other station masters on duty on the evening of February 28 were prosecuted and charged with leaving their less-experienced colleague alone, according to experts and the media, for leaving their post before the end of their shift. The two railway workers were released earlier in the week after paying a deposit of 10,000 euros and must report to the police twice a month.

The train accident, the worst Greece has known, highlights the chronic failures of Greek railways and delays in modernizing safety systems. Since then, a movement of anger and demonstrations has erupted in the country: at the height of the protests on March 8, 65,000 people took to the streets across the country, including more than 40,000 in Athens.

to the cry of“Assassins!”Demonstrators are now demanding accountability from the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but also for neglect from previous governments. “Activities” Public Railway Organization (OSE) and Public Enterprises have been hit hard by the financial crisis of the last decade.

Some traffic will resume

This accident Mr. who was in power for four years. It was a major blow to Mitsotakis’s government, which wants to renew its mandate during general elections in Greece on May 21. First is the cause of the accident “Mostly due to human error”Mr. Mitsotakis later issued his mea culpa and admitted the shortcomings “Chronicles” In railways.

Historically underdeveloped in Greece, rail transport covers only 2,100 kilometers of track and is managed by Hellenic Rail, a subsidiary of the Italian group Ferrovi dello Stato Italy.

After three weeks of disruption after the accident, rail services partially resumed on March 22, but passenger trains connecting Athens and Thessaloniki are still at a standstill. Hellenic Rail plans to resume the route next week.