Train accident in Greece: outdated technology or human error?

38 dead and dozens injured – Greece is in shock after the serious train accident. While rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble, train drivers openly criticize the conditions along the route.

“Is anyone on the train? Everyone out!” Rescue workers struggle through mountains of rubble at the scene of the accident in a mountainous region near the city of Larissa in Greece. You are presented with a picture of devastation.

Shortly before midnight, two trains had run into each other on the same track. A passenger train traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train. The authorities speak of 38 dead and at least 85 injured.

“Everything is broken inside”

An eyewitness reports that there was an emergency stop at the last second and that people were then thrown through the compartments. “Everything broke inside – seats, the entire side of the compartment. Then it went down the slope,” he says.

He and other passengers broke a window and made it out on their own. “A baby with his mother was right behind me. It ‘flew away’. The lights went out, smoke everywhere, we couldn’t see anything. Students saved the baby.”

Meter-high flames rose from wagons

Now, in daylight, emergency services are trying to lift wagons with a heavy crane in order to look for other people underneath. The army is also there. With metal scissors, the helpers dig through the piles of rubble from the two trains that are stuck. Sniffer dogs are used. Several wagons of the passenger train have been thrown off the tracks and lie next to the railway line.

The emergency services also expect more fire victims. During the night, meter-high flames could be seen rising from the wrecked wagons.

370 people on board

Many of the injured have already been taken to hospitals in Larissa and Thessaloniki. There were probably around 370 people on the train, including many young people. They had used yesterday’s public holiday in Greece for a long weekend.

“The dead have come to the hospital in Larissa. We are taking care of the relatives here,” said Greece’s Health Minister Thanos Plevris. “We also read the names of the injured. And we start identifying the bodies. You can imagine how shocking that is for the relatives.”

Chief of the Hellenic Train arrested

How the accident happened is now being investigated. According to the state news channel, the boss of the operating company Hellenic Train has been arrested and is to be interrogated. The railway line between Athens and Thessaloniki is the most important in the country. The operating company belongs to the Italian railway company Ferrovie dello stato, which actually enjoys a good reputation.

Money has been invested in the track in recent years. But there has always been criticism of how the money has been spent. For example, obsolete trains from Switzerland or Portugal were taken over and continued to be used in Greece.

Train driver: “Nothing works”

The signal systems are apparently considered to be problematic. The president of the train drivers in Greece, Kostas Genidounias, raises serious allegations. “Nothing works. Everything has to be done manually – on the entire Athens-Thessaloniki route.” There are no functioning signal systems. “If they worked, the train drivers could see the red signals and stop in time.”

Instead, train drivers have to constantly contact the headquarters in Athens to know whether the next section of the route is free. The current misfortune could possibly also be a result of human error. These are all clues and allegations that the authorities must now investigate.

Greek newspapers speak of the worst train accident of all time in Greece. The national flag on the Acropolis flies at half mast. The whole country mourns.