The station master of the Greek Larissa was arrested on Wednesday. He is held responsible for Tuesday night’s major accident. At least 36 people were killed when two trains collided just outside the city.
The station master is charged with wrongful death and grievous bodily harm. He would have made mistakes in signaling the trains. As a result, they ended up on the same track and collided with each other. The 59-year-old man denies guilt and says the accident was the result of technical defects in the trains and the track. The police are still investigating whether this could be the case.
An employee of the Greek railway says to the newspaper Kathimerini that there have been problems with the safety measures that should have prevented these types of accidents for some time. He says that the automatic signals have not been working for some time and that safety can therefore only be checked by people. Unions have been asking for a new control system since 2018.
In addition to the 36 deaths, dozens were also injured. According to Greek media, two nearby hospitals have admitted a total of 72 injured. Some of them are in serious condition and are in intensive care.
Rescue and search operations are still underway, but there is little chance that survivors will be found. The collision also caused a large fire. There may still be victims in the burnt-out carriages. The death toll could therefore rise, says the Greek fire service.
The collision between a freight train and a passenger train happened outside Larissa just before midnight on Tuesday. That city is located more than 300 kilometers north of the capital Athens. The passenger train carried about 350 people to the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki. There were two people on the freight train.
