Greece in shock after a head-on collision between two trains

Steph Deschamps / March 1, 2023

At least 36 people died and 85 were injured in Greece, according to the fire department, in a head-on collision between two trains on Tuesday evening, after which voices were raised to denounce the lack of safety on the railroad line.

The station chief of Larissa (center), the town not far from where the tragedy took place, was arrested Wednesday, a police source told AFP. For an unknown reason, the two trains were running on the same track “for several kilometers,” said government spokesman Yiannis Oikonomou.

The number of dead has risen to 36 at the moment,” said Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, spokesman for the Greek fire department, during a brief press briefing, adding that rescue operations to try to free passengers who may still be trapped in the wrecked cars were still underway.

Sixty-six people have been hospitalized, six of whom are in intensive care,” he added, adding that a previous report said a total of 85 people were injured, after a train with 342 passengers on board travelling between Athens and Thessaloniki (north) and a convoy of goods arriving in the opposite direction collided on Tuesday evening.

Under the violence of the impact, the locomotives and the leading cars were pulverized and the drivers of two trains were killed instantly.

The president of the union of train drivers OSE, Kostas Genidounias, who visited the scene of the tragedy, denounced the lack of security, according to him, on this line that connects the two main cities of Greece.

The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, declared a three-day national mourning and promised that all the light would be made on the circumstances of this railway accident presented as the worst that Greece has known.