The death toll from one of Greece's deadliest train accidents in recent years rose to 57 on Thursday, heightening public outrage over inadequate rail safety.
On Tuesday evening in Tempi, close to the city of Larissa, demonstrators spilled onto the streets following a head-on accident between a passenger train carrying more than 350 people and a freight train.
Greek Train Crash Prompts Strike
The Greek transport minister resigned in the aftermath of the disaster, and a train workers union is going on strike, accusing the government of "disrespect" in the industry. Another 48 individuals remain in hospital due to the collision, which left overturned carriages and burned rubble in its aftermath.
Six of the injured are in critical condition due to head injuries and severe burns, the state-owned public broadcaster ERT said on Thursday. Student and employee unions planned a demonstration in front of the downtown Athens offices of the Greek train business Hellenic Train.
Per CNN, the police were already present in front of the Hellenic Railways offices before the arrival of the protesters. After Wednesday's disturbance, when protestors battled with police, the demonstration was peaceful.
Most of the accident's passengers were young; a nearby hospital informed ERT. The incident occurred shortly following a holiday weekend. According to the Fire Service, search and rescue activities will continue on Thursday and Friday at the crash site in Tempi, near Larissa.
While the identification process continues at Larissa General Hospital, family members of the missing continue to wait for word about their loved ones. Dimitris Bournazis, still searching for information on his father and brother, told Greek media that no one had provided him with any details.
Protesters Call for Government Accountability of Greece Train Crash
Families lined up to provide DNA samples to identify victims of a train collision. The government has blamed the human mistake, and a railway employee has been charged with manslaughter. In the meantime, emergency teams inched through the crumpled wreckage of passenger carriages in their hunt for victims of Tuesday night's head-on crash, which has already claimed 57 lives and which rescuers worry may rise.
The accident between a passenger train and a freight train was the bloodiest in the country's history, according to ABC7 Chicago. Scores of bereaved family members spent a second day at a hospital in Larissa awaiting the DNA results on the remains, many of which were severely charred or mutilated.
According to fire official Vassilios Vathrakagiannis, rescuers were concentrating on the restaurant vehicle, which was crushed under the first carriage due to the impact of the crash.
The Larissa station manager arrested after the collision was charged with multiple counts of manslaughter and causing serious physical harm through negligence on Thursday as a judicial investigation attempts to determine how two trains could have been traveling in opposite directions on the same track for more than 10 minutes without anyone sounding the alarm.
Associations of railroad employees called for strikes, stopping national rail operations and the Athens metro. They are protesting working conditions and what they say is a perilous failure to update the train infrastructure due to a lack of public investment during the decade-long financial crisis that drove Greece to the verge of insolvency.
Despite decades of modernization efforts, most important rail control tasks are still performed manually. The engine drivers' union chairman, Costas Genidounias, stated that a modernized traffic control system was expected to be operational three years ago.
Families of the deceased and people still missing lashed out at government officials and the private train company Hellenic Train, which the Italian government controls. Several Larissa residents waited in line for more than an hour to donate blood, while the city's hotel association gave free lodging to families of the crash victims and those who went to the city to submit DNA samples.
Critics attribute Greece's near-bankruptcy to a lack of public investment throughout the profound financial crisis that extended most of the preceding decade. During the financial crisis of 2017, the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group privatized and acquired the significantly losing train company.
Greece's rail network is minimal and only covers some of the nations. Despite decades of modernization efforts, most important rail control tasks are still performed manually, as per Republic World.
The engine drivers' union chairman, Costas Genidounias, stated that a modernized traffic control system was expected to be operational three years ago. He stated that starting in 2020, union representatives filed legal letters to the firm responsible for Greece's railway infrastructure, OSE, and government and regulatory authorities but received no reaction.
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