More than 20 people were killed and over 80 were injured in a train collision in Greece

The death toll of two passengers of a freight train colliding with IC62 in Athens and Thessaloniki

Dozens of people are dead and many more are wounded after two trains collided in central Greece.

The Greek railway company, Hellenic Train, said in a press release that there was “a head-on collision between two trains: a freight train and train IC 62 which had departed from Athens to Thessaloniki.”

A teenage survivor told several reporters that he was riding in the fourth carriage when he felt a strong braking and saw sparks. Then everything suddenly stopped.

The focus of recovery efforts is on the first two carriages of the train, the Greek Fire Service said. It is expected that the death toll will increase.

The passenger train had been traveling from the capital Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, which is renowned for its festivals and vibrant cultural life. There was a public holiday on Monday after a nationwide carnival at the weekend.

Images on Greece’s state-owned public broadcaster ERT showed plumes of thick smoke pouring out of toppled carriages and long lines of rescue vehicles next to them.

Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said 194 passengers had been taken safely to Thessaloniki and 20 people transferred by bus to the city of Larissa. He said that of the 85 people injured, 53 remained in the hospital.

The passenger train that went from Athens to the second largest city in Greece had about 350 people on board.

The blaze in the Vale of Tempe, Greece, after a two-ferroic train crash on Tuesday afternoon near the border of Athens

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision near the town of Tempe on Tuesday just before midnight. The scene was lit with lights before dawn on Wednesday, so rescue crews could search through the twisted, smoking wreck for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars due to the impact. The people said that others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 215 miles north of Athens.

“There were many big pieces of steel,” said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. Both passenger and freight trains were destroyed.

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece’s Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for trapped people. Some people scoured the field with flashlight and checked the scene. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train.

The situation is complicated due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said from Greece’s firefighting service.

A fatal train collision and its workplace accident on a double-track line in the Larissa, Greece, of a major Greek rail operator

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that he felt a strong braking and saw sparks before the crash, then there was a sudden stop.

By midday, with hope fading, investigators had begun turning to a question that’s become a familiar refrain in U.S. media following a major train derailment in Ohio earlier last month: What caused this crash?

Though the trains appeared to be traveling on a double-track line, both trains appeared to be moving on the same track, heading towards each other. The passenger train was exiting a tunnel under a highway when it crashed head-on with another train.

More than 150 firefighters and paramedics are on the scene, said Greek Fire Service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakogiannis in a media briefing. The crews are using cranes and construction equipment to help move some of the heaviest chunks of steel.

More than 66 people were hospitalized and six of them were still in intensive care according to several government sources cited by ERT. 130 people were injured.

The current death toll stands at 36, but is expected to rise as more victims are identified, because the temperatures in the first three carriages were higher than 2,300 degrees.

According to a statement shared in local media, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned on Wednesday after visiting the crash scene, saying he felt it was his “duty” to step down “as a sign of respect for the memory of the people who died so unjustly.”

“We will find out thecause of this tragedy and do everything we can to make sure it never happens again,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday.

The station master in the city of Larissa has been charged with manslaughter and is in police custody. The 59-year-old Hellenic Train employee denied any wrongdoing, saying the accident may have been a technical failure.

Getting a full picture of what happened may take some time, authorities say. Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas said that the two drivers of the freight train were among the nine rail employees killed in the crash, reports the Associated Press.

Hellenic Train, the line’s operator, canceled dozens of its scheduled routes for Wednesday, saying in a statement that its “primary and exclusive concern” for the moment is to complete the evacuation and rescue process.

Derek Gatopoulos, an AP reporter based in Athens, told NPR’s Up First that the collision is likely to spark a debate around rail safety. It might be similar to the one that happened in the U.S. after a train wreck sent hazardous materials spilling into the area.

An initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board stopped short of declaring a conclusive cause of the Ohio derailment, but said a wheel bearing overheated, raising questions of whether the train’s safety sensors and procedures were sufficient.

The collision is already raising questions about whether lines, systems and signaling equipment were properly inspected during the sale, Gatopoulos said.

The release of audio in which a train driver was told to avoid a red light caused an increase in anger in Greece over poor railway safety.

The demonstrators spilled onto the streets after the head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train in Tempi, which killed more than 350 people. The death toll rose to 57 late on Thursday.

Protesters clashed with police in the capital Athens, the country’s transport minister resigned in the wake of the tragedy and a rail workers’ union is going on strike, accusing the government of “disrespect” in the sector.

Student and union demonstrators staged a protest again outside the headquarters of Hellenic Train in Athens on Thursday evening.

Bournazis tells ERT he called Hellenic Train but no one had told him about his family when he arrived at Larissa

Meanwhile, relatives of those missing are still awaiting news regarding their loved ones as the identification process continues at Larissa General Hospital.

Speaking to Greek media earlier, Bournazis said that he had not received any information about his father and brother. Bournazis was trying to find out if his relatives were sitting on the train when it crashed. He said he’s been calling the offices of Hellenic Train but no one has called him back.

“The prime minister and the health minister came here yesterday. Why? To do something? To explain what? Where are they today?” Bournazis told Greek broadcaster SKAI, adding that “no one has given us any information, no one knows how many people really were inside.”

He told ERT that he helped around 10 people escape when he broke the broken glass and threw the luggage outside the carriage.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/europe/greece-train-crash-larissa-protests-intl/index.html

The tragedy of the accident happened when the Greek railways were not up to 21st century standards: The Prime Minister and the King of England – in solidarity

Greece has a low record of railway passenger safety compared to other countries in Europe, and has the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers in the entire world, according to the EU Agency for Railways.

The Greek federation of rail workers decided to launch a strike on Thursday in order to highlight the poor working conditions and chronic understaffing.

More permanent staff, better training, and the use of modern security systems are thrown in the bin because the federal government does not respect railways.

Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis said the railway system the government inherited was “not up to 21st century standards” as he stepped down from his role Wednesday.

In a televised address after visiting the crash site, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the collision was “mainly” due “to tragic human error.”

He said that the heads of Hellenic Railways Organization and ERgoSE had submitted their resignations, as well as the transport minister.

The statement from Britain’s King Charles said that he and his wife had been most shocked and profoundly sad by the accident.

The families of the people who were killed in a terrible accident last night are in my thoughts. The Greeks and France are standing together.