(Larissa) The station master, who admitted his responsibility in the train disaster that killed 57 people in Greece, obtained an additional 24 hours from justice on Saturday to prepare his defense, when the revelations about his inexperience were revealed. multiply in a country in the throes of anger.
Greek justice has decided to postpone until Sunday the hearing of this 59-year-old man, accused of having made a fatal error which led to the accident on Tuesday evening, announced his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis, to AFP.
PHOTO THANOS FLOULIS, REUTERS
Lawyer Stefanos Pantzartzidis, who represents the station master, answered questions from journalists on Saturday in Larissa.
The investigating judge in Larissa, the city closest to the scene of the accident, will have to decide after this hearing whether to charge him with “manslaughter by negligence”.
While the anger that has rumbled since this disaster is not coming down, new demonstrations are expected on Saturday evening in Greece at the call of young communists.
A large gathering of students, railway and public sector workers is also scheduled for Sunday at 11 a.m. (4 a.m. EST) in Syntagma Square, opposite Parliament.
At Tempé station, near the scene of the tragedy, the families of the victims have also planned to gather on Sunday.
PHOTO SAKIS MITROLIDIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Relatives comfort each other during the funeral of Ifigenia Mitska, one of the victims of the train tragedy, on Saturday in Giannitsa, in the north of the country.
The burials of victims also began in an immense emotion.
This drama shook all of Greece, in particular because the victims were many young students returning from a long weekend in Thessaloniki, the large university town in the North.
Inexperienced
According to the daily Kathimerinijustice seeks to understand how an inexperienced station master found himself, alone, without anyone to supervise him, at Larissa station for four days when rail traffic on this line was intense due to this long week -end linked to an Orthodox holiday.
This man, whose identity has not been revealed, had also only received 40 days of training to become a station master.
But according to a judicial source, the investigation also aims “to initiate criminal proceedings, if necessary, against members of the management of the company” Hellenic Train, the Greek railways, while the dilapidation of the network is pointed out from finger.
A search was also carried out Friday in the station of Larissa.
The government has also decided to appoint a committee of experts to investigate the causes of the accident.
Since the day after the disaster, the Greeks have taken to the streets to express their anger, accusing the authorities of negligence and pointing the finger at the dilapidated state of the railway infrastructure.
PHOTO SPYROS BAKALIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Demonstration in front of the Greek parliament, Friday evening in Athens
These outbursts of anger also led to clashes in Athens and Thessaloniki. On Friday evening, the police used tear gas and sound grenades in these two cities.
The anger is primarily directed at Hellenic Train. The word “Assassins” was painted in red letters on the window of the headquarters in Athens in front of which more than 5,000 angry people gathered on Friday and demanding accountability, AFP noted.
The company is blamed for numerous negligence and shortcomings that led to this disaster described as a “national tragedy” by the authorities.
“We are living the greatest tragedy in our history,” said the management of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest in northern Greece. Nine students from this university died.
Young people are demanding the truth despite the government’s mea culpa on the “chronic” failures of the rail network that led to the accident.
“We are filled with rage and cannot accept that such a tragic event can occur in 2023,” said student union president Angelos Thomopoulos, according to whom most universities remained closed on Friday.
Justice and the population want to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers and ten railway workers was authorized to take the same single track linking Athens to Thessaloniki (North) as a convoy of goods.
PHOTO GIANNIS PAPANIKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Strike
The trains did not run on Thursday and Friday after a call for a strike by the railway unions. The call was renewed on Friday for another 48 hours. The Athens metro also planned to strike again on Sunday after a first strike on Thursday.
The president of the OSE train drivers’ union, Kostas Genidounias, highlighted the safety breaches on the offending line.
Union representatives at the Hellenic Train railway company sounded the alarm three weeks ago.
“We are not going to wait for the accident to happen to see those responsible shed crocodile tears,” they warned.