“For 20 minutes, he was in charge of (train) security throughout central Greece,” the lawyer said of his client.
Greek media reported that the automated signaling system in the accident area was not working, making the stationmaster’s mistake possible. Station masters along that part of Greece’s main trunk line communicate with each other and train conductors via two-way radios, and the switches are manually operated.
The prime minister promised a swift investigation into the crash and said the new Greek transport minister would publish a safety improvement plan. Once a new parliament is established, a commission will also be appointed to investigate decades of mismanagement of the country’s rail system, Mitsotakis said.
In an opening statement Wednesday, Mitsotakis said the accident was the result of «tragic human error.» Opposition parties pounced on the comment, accusing the prime minister of trying to cover up the role of the state and turn the inexperienced stationmaster into a scapegoat.
“I owe everyone, and especially the families of the victims, a huge apology, both personally and on behalf of all who ruled the country for many years,” Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “In 2023 it is inconceivable that two trains travel in different directions on the same track and nobody notices. We cannot, we do not want to and we must not hide behind human error”.
Greece’s railways have long suffered from chronic mismanagement, including lavish spending on projects that were ultimately abandoned or significantly delayed, Greek media reported in several complaints. With the state railway company Hellenic Railways in debt of billions of euros, maintenance work has been postponed, according to news reports.
A retired railway union leader, Panayotis Paraskevopoulos, told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the signaling system in the area monitored by the Larissa station master had not worked six years ago and was never repaired.
Police and prosecutors have not identified the station chief, in accordance with Greek law. However, Hellenic Railways, also known as OSE, revealed the name of the stationmaster on Saturday, in an announcement that suspended the company inspector who appointed him. The stationmaster has also been suspended.
Greek media reported that the stationmaster, a former railway company porter, was transferred to an education ministry clerical position in 2011, when Greece’s creditors demanded cuts in the number of public employees. The 59-year-old transferred back to the railway company in mid-2022 and began a 5-month course to train as a stationmaster.
Upon completing the course, he was assigned to Larissa on January 23, according to his own Facebook post. However, he spent the next month rotating between other stations before returning to Larissa in late February, days before the February 28 collision, Greek media reported.