The police are not yet saying what the station master is accused of, but he is likely to be held responsible for the head-on collision of the two trains, which were traveling on the same track.
Responsibility
Transport Minister Karamanlis said in a response that he takes responsibility for the “prolonged failure” of the state. According to him, resigning is ‘the least he can do in memory of the victims’.
Double track
It is still unclear how exactly the accident between a freight train and a passenger train with more than 350 people on board could have happened. There was a double track on the trajectory of the collision, but the two trains did not use it.
It seems that there was a human error in traffic control, which caused them to collide on the same track. An employee of the Greek railway tells Kathimerini newspaper that there have been problems with the safety measures that should have prevented accidents like this for some time.
You can watch the first reactions of survivors of the disaster in the video below:
National mourning
He says that the automatic signals have not been working for some time and that safety should therefore only be checked by people. Unions have been asking for a new operating system since 2018.
The Greek government has declared three days of national mourning following the train crash.
Rutte: ‘Terrible’ news
The Dutch government has also responded to the disaster. Prime Minister Mark Rutte calls the accident in Greece ‘terrible’ news.
Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) also sympathizes with the Greeks. “Very sad to hear about the terrible railway accident,” Hoekstra tweeted.
“Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.” He informs his Greek colleague Nikos Dendias that the Netherlands stands next to Greece “in this difficult time”.
