05/03/2023 2:38 pm (act. 05/03/2023 02:40 pm)
Police used tear gas and stun grenades ©APA/AFP
At a protest rally after the serious train accident in Greece that killed 57 people, demonstrators and police clashed violently outside the parliament in Athens on Sunday. Some demonstrators set trash cans on fire and threw Molotov cocktails, which police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, AFP reporters noted.
According to the police, around 12,000 people gathered in front of Parliament for a protest demonstration. They released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to commemorate those killed in the tragedy near the city of Larisa. The protesters were made up of students, railway workers and members of groups close to the left. They paid tribute to the victims of the accident and called for better safety standards in rail traffic. “This crime will not be forgotten,” they chanted as the black balloons rose. One sign read: “Your policy is costing lives.”
On the route between Athens and the port city of Thessaloniki, a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on just before midnight on Tuesday night. It was the worst rail accident in the country’s history and sparked widespread protests, with thousands denouncing failures to modernize Greece’s rail network.
Meanwhile, new details leading to the head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train caused outrage across the country. They revealed failure all along the line. The professional career of the stationmaster alone, who made the crucial mistake and diverted the passenger train onto the wrong tracks, raises countless questions. The man, who will be questioned again on Sunday, is 59 years old – and only started his training as a station manager last year, although the age limit for training is 42, according to reports in Greek media. He had previously worked as a doorman and messenger at the Ministry of Culture.
The man shouldn’t have been trained in the first place and would have been completely overwhelmed. He was also days without a more experienced colleague at an important post at the Larisa railway station. After sending the train onto the wrong tracks, he allegedly ignored electronic instructions and questions from one of the affected drivers, as well as a stationmaster at one of the nearby stations, reports “Kathimerini”. The trains therefore raced against each other unhindered for minutes before the fatal head-on collision occurred.
The 59-year-old has been in custody for a long time and has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent bodily harm, among other things. But despite the supposed mistakes of man, people feel that citing “human error” as the reason for the tragedy is insufficient.
It is indisputable that every government of the past 20 years has criminally neglected the Greek railways. That the electronic guidance system and other safety precautions did not work or only partially worked. That the railway workers have repeatedly complained about this and demanded changes – not only from the state railway company OSE, but also from the Ministry of Transport. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized extensively on social media on Sunday.
“As prime minister, I owe everyone, but especially the victims’ families, a huge apology – both personally and on behalf of all those who have ruled the country for years,” Mitsotakis wrote, admitting: “We can, we want and we can don’t hide behind human error.” The accident would have been virtually impossible if the electronics had worked.
In his post, Mitsotakis promised to improve and promised repairs to the electronic control system, a special committee on the failures of the last 20 years and new trains. For now, this does not calm people down: on Sunday morning, hundreds gathered again in Syntagma Square, in the center of Athens, in front of the Parliament, to protest against the situation.
Pope Francis expressed his condolences to the victims and families of the train accident on Sunday. “Many were young students. I pray for the dead, I am close to the wounded and their families,” said the head of the church at Sunday’s Angelus prayer in the Vatican. And more: “May the Blessed Mother comfort you.”