The Greek Letter -e-kATHİMERİNİ - Deadly train collision raises serious questions

 

Deadly train collision raises serious questions[InTime News] Constantine CapsaskisNewsletter Editor Welcome to the weekly round-up of news by Kathimerini English Edition. The head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train in the valley of Tempe, near the city of Larissa, on Tuesday night led to the death of at least 57 people and has left dozens injured, mostly university students. The collision, Greece’s worst rail disaster, has raised several serious questions about the country’s railway safety standards, and continues to stir an outpouring of grief and anger in Greek society. In the aftermath of the collision, the 59-year-old Larissa stationmaster was arrested and faces several charges of negligent manslaughter for his alleged role in the disaster. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis released a statement on Sunday apologizing, on behalf of the present and past Greek governments, for the systemic failures of Greece’s railways that contributed to the collision, following an address on Wednesday that noted that “the tragedy is, unfortunately, primarily down to a tragic human error”. In response to criticism by the opposition over his address, the prime minister stated on Sunday that “We cannot, should not and do not want to hide behind human error.” Indeed, since the accident, there has been mounting evidence that the stationmaster’s actions were the final link in a line of systemic issues, which include glaring safety gaps and omissions as pointed out by Kathimerini’s Yiannis Souliotis and Georgios Lialios. Primarily, there has been a significant delay in modernizing the Greek railway infrastructure as the European Train Control System (ETCS) has not been installed and there is no modern operations and signaling system. Rail employees and workers have long been highlighting the safety gaps, even as late as February 7 when one of the unions published a letter calling for better conditions. Questions have also been raised about the level of the stationmaster’s training, particularly as Larissa is one of the most important stations on Greece’s limited railway. Specifically, the 59-year-old was only 35 days into his new post after a very short training program (August 2022 to January 2023). The collision has also led to widespread protests and demonstrations, particularly by students, over the perceived long-term indifference of various governments and railway operators to remedy the situation. Spotlight Transport and Infrastructure Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis resigned following the crash, with Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis taking over as interim minister until national elections are held. Gerapetritis assured the press that “everything will be investigated”. To this end, the government also announced the creation of a panel comprised of rail experts to thoroughly investigate the collision. However, one of the three members of the panel withdrew from the committee as he had previously served as CEO of TrainOSE, now Hellenic Train.   Former Alternate Justice Minister in the SYRIZA government of 2015-2019, Dimitris Papangelopoulos was acquitted of charges of abuse of power by a special court comprised of judges from Greece’s two high courts, the Supreme Court and the Council of State. However, he was found guilty of two misdemeanour counts of dereliction of duty , and faces a 10,000 euro fine. At the same time, the court also acquitted prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, at the time head of the anti-corruption office, for failure to act in regard to certain allegations against SYRIZA ministers.

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OPINION Tom EllisEditor-in-Chief, Kathimerini English Edition The political fallout of the tragedy[InTime News] It is obviously too soon to comprehensively assess the potential impact the train tragedy will have on the political scene as we are heading into the national elections sometime in the spring. Even the pollsters have paused surveying the electorate as everyone agrees that the dust has to settle before one starts to analyze the situation. The shortcomings of Greece’s railway network, the delays in modernizing it and implementing the necessary security measures, go back many years. Hence, there’s a lot of blame to go around, but in the present political reality it all comes down to a twofold question: will society blame the deadly accident mostly on a human error or, as it seems to be the case, will put most of the blame on politicians that for years have not done what was deemed necessary? And, as the latter assessment prevails, should all political parties that were in government – New Democracy, PASOK, SYRIZA – and prime ministers, past and present, that led the country – Karamanlis, Samaras, Papandreou, Tsipras, Mitsotakis – share the blame equally or will the burden fall mostly on the present government which has been in power for the last four years? New Democracy’s strategy in the coming weeks will be to convince the voters that it’s a cross party problem and that all who have governed are to blame. SYRIZA and PASOK, on the other hand, will be forced to recognize the obvious, that the shortcomings go back a long time, but will concentrate on the last four years, arguing that the present government had ample time to make the necessary changes to modernize Greece’s railways and upgrade its security mechanisms. There will also be a debate about the role of specific business interests as well as the impact of political clientelism. The investigation will look into the circumstances under which a person who seemingly lacked the necessary skills was assigned to the sensitive position of stationmaster in maybe the country’s most import train station.