LARISSA: Demonstrators held more rallies on Saturday to protest the cause of Greece’s worst-ever train crash, as the first victims were laid to rest.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the country since Tuesday’s collision between a passenger train and a freight train, which killed at least 57 people.
The court appearance of the station master involved in the accident has been adjourned for a day, and public anger is growing at the government’s failure to ensure the safety of the rail network.
More protests took place in several cities on Saturday evening, with hundreds in Athens and Thessaloniki.
A rally of students and railway workers has been called for Sunday in the capital’s Syntagma Square, next to parliament, which was the scene of clashes on Friday night.
The first burials of crash victims began on Saturday, and relatives of the dead are expected to gather for a memorial outside Larissa station near the disaster site in central Greece on Sunday.
“What happened was not an accident, it was a crime,” said protester Sophia Hitzopoulos, 23, a philosophy student in Thessaloniki.
“We cannot watch all this happen and remain indifferent.”
At least nine young people studying at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki were among those killed in the train, which was carrying many students back from a holiday weekend.
‘New elements’ in case
The station master at Larissa in central Greece, who has not been identified, has claimed responsibility for the accident, which saw the two trains run on the same track for several kilometres.
The 59-year-old man was due to appear in court on Saturday where he could face charges of negligent homicide, but will now appear on Sunday, his lawyer Stefanos Pantartsidis said.
He risks life in prison if convicted, but Pantzertsides has argued that other factors were at play. “In this case, there are important new elements that need to be examined.”
JEE News reported that the station master was appointed to the post just 40 days ago – and after only three months of training, covering several stations.
According to Kathimerini Daily, he apparently worked alone at the station for four days, despite it being a holiday week with high demand and heavy rail traffic.
Legal sources have suggested that investigators are also considering criminal charges against members of the management of train operator Hellenic Train.
A judicial source told JEE News that police seized audio files and other items during a raid at Larisa train station.
The government has also set up a committee to find out the causes of the accident.
Kostas Genidonias, head of the train drivers’ union OSE, said they had already warned authorities about safety lapses on the line where the accident happened.
And union leaders at Hellenic Train raised the alarm again just three weeks ago.
He then said, “We will not wait for an accident to happen to shed crocodile tears on those responsible.”
Clean-up operation
Hundreds of people observed a minute’s silence outside the Greek parliament on Friday, but riot police and a small group of protesters clashed later in central Athens.
At the rally in Syntagma Square, officers fired tear gas and stun grenades and Molotov cocktails at protesters who threw stones, JEE News reporter said.
Similar numbers showed up in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, where police reported clashes on Thursday with protesters throwing stones and throwing petrol bombs.
Greece’s train services were paralyzed on Thursday by striking workers that management’s continued mismanagement of the network led to deadly clashes. The strike continued through the weekend.
The clean-up operation continued on Saturday, with technical crews sifting through the scattered debris and removing the train bogies from the site.
