The eleven minutes of missing conversations “synchronized” with the passenger train’s strange stop in the middle of nowhere, which passengers attest to in lawsuits and depositions
New facts in the case of Tempi are created by the petition filed before the Larissa First Instance Prosecutor’s Office by the family of the dead driver of the passenger train Giorgos Koutsoubas through her attorney Vassilis Zisimatos. According to what is complained of and for which evidence is presented, the crucial eleven minutes that have “disappeared” from the recorded conversations of the OSE on the night of the tragedy coincide in time with a stop made by the passenger train a few minutes after its departure from Larissa station .
It is an inexplicable stop in “the middle of nowhere in complete darkness” as it appears from official testimonies of passengers of the train. The family of the dead train driver claims that the experienced G. Koutsoubas realized that the Larissa station master Vasilis Samaras he had led him onto the wrong railway line and therefore stopped the train, as he should, in order to receive orders. It is minutes before the heavy collision with the commercial train.
So in order to incriminate the dead train driver, some people “altered” communications and “disappeared” conversations. It is yet another shocking revelation about the OSE’s communications on the night of the tragedy following the “Step” revelations of editing the audio of the conversations. But let’s untangle from the beginning the tangle of facts that have come to light, starting with the revelatory testimonies of the surviving passengers about the train’s brief stop.
Testimonies confirm the attitude
On May 30, 2023, three surviving passengers of the IC62 passenger train filed a lawsuit before the Larissa First Instance Prosecutor’s Office. The lawsuit detailed what happened from the time they boarded the train to the collision with the commercial train and what followed. The passenger train had started at 19:22 from Athens to Thessaloniki. At 23:02 he arrived at Larissa station. Shortly after, he left for the next station, Nea Poros. But as it was revealed, with the “responsibility of the Larissa Station Master” instead of entering the ascending line, the train moved to the descending line. Freight train 63503 ran on the same line, making the route Thessaloniki – Athens. The result was that at 23:18 the two trains collided, plunging the whole of Greece into mourning.
According to two of the three plaintiffs, immediately after the departure of the passenger train from Larissa, that is around 23:05, the train stopped completely suddenly for about 10 to 15 minutes “in the middle of nowhere”.
Specifically, one of the three plaintiffs, Mr Dimitris Kostarelos: “When we arrived at Larissa station we stayed at the platform for about 10 to 15 minutes and during this time, fortunately the girl who was with us in the compartment returned from the restaurant where she had gone. Then the train left the station and continued on its way for a few minutes then it stopped “in the middle of nowhere” for about 10 minutes and an employee informed us through the loudspeaker about the schedule of each next stop and the arrival at the terminal destination for Thessaloniki. The train started, there was darkness because we had turned off the lights in the compartment and were relaxing.”
The same is described by the second plaintiff Konstantinos Topouzidis. “After Larissa the train made one more stop not at a station and when it started they made an announcement with the arrival times at each subsequent station.”
The stop of the passenger train has been described by two more passengers in a lawsuit filed before the Larissa Misdemeanor Prosecutor’s Office on December 22, 2023. In more detail, the plaintiff Evlampia Tzikopoulou he reports verbatim: “A short time after the stop in Larissa, the train stopped again, stopped for several minutes, without stopping at any station. We looked out, trying to figure out what was going on, but we could see nothing but pitch black. The people in the carriage began to worry and try to understand what was happening. I felt something was wrong, I was scared, but I didn’t say anything, not wanting to upset my friends. After a while, we started again…”.
In the same lawsuit, another passenger, h Polixeni Tzikopoulou, points out: “A short time after we started from Larissa, the train stopped for a few minutes, there being no stop at that point. We looked at each other and wondered, because we didn’t understand what was happening, but after a while we started again.”
The eleven minutes of missing conversations
According to what is alleged in the complaint, the stop of the passenger train was not accidental. After all, no one suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere minutes after leaving the previous station unless there is a serious reason (breakdown, person falling on the tracks, etc.). In fact, the train driver is obliged in the event of a stop to immediately contact the local station master and then fill out a special form with the exact reasons that led him to the stop and deliver it to the next station.
Therefore, as the relatives claim, the stop was made because the train driver realized that “there was a sudden change in his route, from the ascent to the descent” and “obviously he stopped in order to inform the Larissa station master and receive clear orders”.
However, “that conversation has disappeared from the digital audio files that were handed over and introduced into the case file,” the complaint alleges. The reason was that “some tried to blame the unfortunate train driver” on the grounds that “he acted negligently on the fateful night”.
The void in the sounds is identified with the attitude
Indeed, according to the “digital files of the OSE walkie-talkie”, which have been transcribed and forwarded to the Special Appellate Investigator Sotiris Bakaimithe length of time that the conductor stops the train outside of Larissa coincides with the eleven-minute gap that appears in the “transcription report” of the conversations.
Documento lists the documents with the disputed records in detail. Note that the recordings have a time deviation from the actual time, as they are eleven minutes behind the actual time.
Specifically at 23:07:54 (recording time 22:56:54) the Larissa station master V. Samaras is talking to an unknown man (not the train driver Koutsoubas). It is conversation number 70 of the transcript report with code CH1 000003e6_443, 15 second file.
The dialogue is as follows:
Man: Santa are you listening?
Samaras Vassilios: Come on, say it.
Man: I forgot the envelope, give it in the morning, write train drivers of Volos and give it in the morning to come.
Samaras Vassilios: Welcome.
The next conversation recorded is 11 minutes later. The time is 23:19 (record time 23:07:24). The station master of Larissa is talking to two men. It is the 16 second file CH1 000003e7_443. Less than a minute before the two trains collide head-on.
Man 1: Larisa, we don’t have electricity.
Man 2: Station is listening.
Samaras Vassilios: Where you don’t have electricity.
All of the conversations contained in the transcript “take place every few seconds,” the lawsuit alleges. The only exception is “the disputed time period of the 11-minute silence of the sounds, which takes place exactly at the point in time when the train departs from Larissa, stops in the “middle of nowhere” and then starts again for death” as pointed out.
The train driver’s relatives even raise reasonable questions about how it is possible for eleven whole minutes that “no one other than the people working inside the station or around it (station masters, locksmiths, train drivers, engine room, platform guards) communicate on the radio” readings etc.)’.
After the few minute stop the passenger train starts again. At 23:18 it collides head-on with the commercial train. At 23:24:28 (recording time 23:13:38) the Larissa station master communicates with the passenger train. He has not realized the fatal accident.
In particular, the station master can be heard saying: “Is 62 listening?” Apparently he gets no response.
“Tampering Evidence”
As pointed out in the indictment, “based on the above facts… it appears beyond doubt that some, at the behest of other persons, tampered with critical evidence” by “intercepting specific OSE conversations”
According to information from Documento, the OSE recorder has already been confiscated by the special appellate investigator Sot. Bakaimi. In the next period of time, it is expected that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of ELAS will be asked to establish whether audio records of conversations have been deleted.
Vassilis Zisimatos – Advocate for the family of train driver Giorgos Koutsoumbas: “A human hand erased the conversations”
Two human errors would be better suited to the narrative of some! They could ultimately claim that only two are to blame for the national crime of Tempe, the station master and the passenger train driver, who allegedly did not stop the train when he discovered the former’s mistake, nor did he allegedly contact him again to receive new information. instructions. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the story.
The official testimonies of the injured/passengers of the train, on the one hand, confirm the fact that the train driver stopped shortly after leaving the Larissa station, in the “middle of nowhere” as they describe it, for several minutes, until he started again towards his death. Looking back at the audio files of the radio telephone delivered by the OSE to the Justice and their transcripts, this critical period of time, immediately after the fatal Intercity 62 train left the Larissa station and up to the time when it collided head-on with the commercial train, quite “coincidentally” there is “inexplicable and absolute silence” in radiotelephone communications, for eleven whole minutes, while both before and after all the conversations of stationmasters, train drivers, locksmiths and others take place every second. It is obvious that the driver stopped the train and contacted the station master. However, human hand deleted the conversations. With our indictment, the Court is obliged to examine the evidence and identify the persons involved.
Some people should finally understand that not everything is politics. There are people who have lost loved ones. There are people who struggle every day to overcome what they experienced, but the pains from the traumas do not leave them. So let’s at least respect all these people with actions and not words. Let them be respected, even with their silence.
I am absolutely certain that in the end Justice will be served, even if we have before us some who are ready and willing to convince us that even the occupants of the fatal train are ultimately responsible for the crime of Tempe.
#documents #editor #Tempe
