The crash between passenger and freight trains has sparked outrage throughout Greece.
Athens:
The Greek prime minister on Sunday requested for forgiveness from the households of the 57 lifeless within the nation’s worst rail catastrophe forward of a significant rally by college students and rail staff in Athens.
“As prime minister, I owe it to everybody, however particularly to the victims’ relations, (to ask for) forgiveness,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message addressed to the nation.
The crash between passenger and freight trains has sparked widespread outrage throughout Greece.
“For the Greece of 2023, two trains heading in numerous instructions can’t run on the identical line and nobody discover,” Mitsotakis mentioned within the message posted on his Fb web page.
Kin and family members of these killed in Tuesday’s devastating practice crash have been additionally anticipated to assemble Sunday for a memorial exterior Larissa station, central Greece, close to the positioning of the accident.
The station grasp implicated within the catastrophe was due in courtroom on Sunday, a listening to postponed from the day gone by, the place he could face costs of negligent murder.
Hellenic Prepare, the rail firm that has change into the main target of a number of the anger expressed within the wake of the crash, launched an announcement late Saturday defending its actions.
A whole lot of individuals had demonstrated in the course of the week exterior their Athens headquarters, and one authorized supply has mentioned that investigators are taking a look at the potential of bringing costs in opposition to senior members of the corporate.
Over the previous couple of days, rail union officers have insisted they warned the corporate concerning the issues of safety on the road. Laborious questions are additionally being requested of the federal government over its failure to pursue rail security reforms.
Grief and anger
The demonstrations and vigils throughout Greece have expressed a mixture of grief and anger on the catastrophe, which occurred when a passenger practice and a freight practice collided.
Sunday’s demonstration in Athens shall be within the capital’s Syntagma Sq., subsequent to parliament, already the scene of clashes between police and indignant protesters on Friday night time.
Candle-lit marches and ceremonies have been held in reminiscence of the victims of the accident, a lot of them college students who have been coming back from a weekend break.
“What occurred was not an accident, it was against the law,” mentioned one protester, Sophia Hatzopoulou, 23, a philosophy scholar in Thessaloniki.
“We will not watch all this occur and stay detached.”
At the least 9 younger individuals learning at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle College have been amongst these killed on the passenger practice.
‘New components’ in case
The station grasp at Larissa, whose id has not been made public, has admitted accountability for the accident, which occurred after the 2 trains ran alongside the identical monitor for a number of kilometres.
The 59-year-old man, if he’s charged with negligent murder, faces life in jail if convicted.
However his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis insisted Saturday: “Within the case, there are essential new components that must be examined.”
Particulars have emerged in Greek media of the station grasp’s relative inexperience within the publish and the truth that he was left unsupervised throughout a busy vacation weekend.
Security warnings
“These are significantly tough days for the nation and for our firm,” Hellenic Prepare mentioned in an announcement late Saturday, mentioning that it had misplaced 9 of its personal workers within the crash.
Its employees have been fast to succeed in the scene of the catastrophe and had been working carefully with rescue groups and the authorities ever since, the corporate added.
Kostas Genidounias, the pinnacle of the practice drivers’ union OSE, has mentioned they’d already warned the authorities about security failings on the road the place the crash occurred.
And union leaders at Hellenic Prepare sounded the alarm simply three weeks in the past.
“We aren’t going to attend for the accident to occur to see these accountable shed crocodile tears,” they mentioned on the time.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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