Detection of a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train in the city of Larissa, Greece
Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors after a head on collision between two trains killed dozens of people and injured scores.
At least 32 people were killed and more than 85 injured when a passenger train carrying more than 350 people collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight, in Tempi, central Greece, near the city of Larissa, the Greek Fire Service said.
A teenager said he felt a strong braking and saw sparks while riding on the fourth carriage. Then everything suddenly stopped.
Recovery efforts are underway, with the focus on the first two carriages of the passenger train, the Greek Fire Service said. The death toll is likely to go up.
Many of the people on those passengers were students returning from Carnival, a three day festival that precedes the religious season of Lent. The freight train’s load was likely construction material, such as heavy steel plates, according to Greece’s public media agency.
Images on Greece’s state-owned public broadcaster ERT showed plumes of thick smoke pouring out of toppled carriages and long lines of rescue vehicles next to them.
Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north. As they arrived, police took their names to try and find anyone who might be missing.
Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.
Multiple cars derailed and three bodies burst into flames in a mangled rail crash near the Vale of Tempe, Greece
Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision near the town of Tempe on Tuesday just before midnight. Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.
Local media reports citing survivors suggest that the first two carriages of the passenger train were sent flying into the air, twisting backward and catching fire, leaving them completely disintegrated by morning.
“The front section of the train was smashed. … We’re getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There is debris all around the crash site.
The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. The governor of Thessaly area, Costas Agorastos, told Greece’s SKai television that two trains crashed head on.
Rescuers wearing head lamps pulled pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for people who had been trapped. They looked for the wreck with torches and checked under it. Several of the dead are believed to have been found near a passenger train.
Vassulis Varthakoasiannis, a spokesman for the Greece’s firefighting service, said the evacuated people were being carried out under very difficult conditions.
The tragedy of the Oct. 13 train crash in Larissa ( Greece): Prime Minister Constantine Ricci, railway workers, and the prime minister
A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.
The investigation of last month’s train wreck in Ohio started looking to a question that has become a cliché in U.S. media: What caused this crash?
The two trains appeared to be travelling on the same track, going towards each other. The trains collided, head-on, just before midnight local time, as the passenger train was exiting a tunnel under a highway in the municipality of Tempe.
Vassilis Varthakogiannis, a Greek Fire Service spokesman, told the media that more than 150 firefighters and paramedics are on the scene. The crews are using cranes and construction equipment to help move some of the heaviest chunks of steel.
org reports that 66 people were hospitalized, and six of them were still in intensive care as of Wednesday. 130 people were injured.
The ERT also reported that the current death toll stands at 36 but is expected to rise as more victims are identified, a task that’s been complicated because temperatures exceeded 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit when fires broke out in the first three carriages.
The country’s minister of transportation resigned the next day, saying that his efforts to improve the railway were not enough to prevent an accident.
In a post to his official account on wednesday, the prime minister said that they would find out the causes of the tragedy and do everything in their power to prevent it from happening again.
The BBC reports that the station master from the city of Larissa was arrested and charged with manslaughter by negligence. The Hellenic Train employee denied wrongdoing and said the accident may have been a technical failure.
It may take some time to get a full picture of what happened. Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas said that the two drivers of the freight train were among the nine rail employees killed in the crash, reports the Associated Press.
Hellenic Train canceled dozens of its scheduled routes on Wednesday because of its “primary and exclusive concern” for the moment, a statement said.
The crash is likely to spark a debate about rail safety according to an AP reporter based in Athens. It may mirror the one taking place in the U.S. following the aftermath of an Ohio train derailment that sent hazardous materials spilling into the surrounding residential area.
A wheel bearing overheated, raising questions about the train’s safety procedures, but the initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board stopped short of declaring the cause of the Ohio derailing.
The collision is already raising questions about whether lines, systems and signaling equipment were properly inspected during the sale, Gatopoulos said.
In the audio, a station manager appears to instruct a driver to “pass the red signal” before that train collided head-on with another on Tuesday night local time, near the city of Larissa in northern Greece, according to Greek news media.
Hundreds of people gathered in the streets of Tempi to protest after a passenger train and a freight train collided on Tuesday evening. The death toll from the crash rose to 57 late on Thursday.
In the wake of the tragedy, the transport minister resigned, protesters clashed with police and a rail workers’ union went on strike, accusing the government of “disrespect” in the sector.
Protesters gathered outside the central Athens headquarters of Greek rail company Hellenic Train again on Thursday evening in a demonstration organized by student and worker unions.
The Greek prime minister and the health minister have no information about the tragedy of the Larissa Protests in Athens. Comment on ‘Greece’ by Bournazis
Family members of those missing are waiting for news as the identification process continues at the hospital.
Speaking earlier to Greek media, Dimitris Bournazis, who is trying to get news about his father and brother, said no one has given him any information. Bournazis said he was trying to contact the company to find out where on the train his relatives were sitting at the time of the crash. He said he called the offices of Hellenic Train three times but no one has called him back.
“The prime minister and the health minister came here yesterday. Why? To do what? To explain what? Where are they today? Bournazis said no one has provided any information, no one knows the number of people inside and no one knows how many were inside.
He said that they broke the glass in order to help around 10 people escape.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/europe/greece-train-crash-larissa-protests-intl/index.html
The tragedy of the Larissa tragedy unfolded in Greece: The transport minister of Greece and the Queen consort of King Charles to the throne
Greece has a weak record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe, recording the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent, according to a 2022 report from the European Union Agency for Railways.
Rail workers in Greece decided to go on strike on Thursday due to poor working conditions and chronic understaffing.
It said that the federal government had disrespect towards railways for causing the crash, and that more permanent staff, better training and implementing modern security systems were thrown in the bin.
The Greek transport minister, who stepped down from his job on Wednesday, stated that the railway system was not up to 21st century standards.
In a televised address after visiting the crash site, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the collision was “mainly” due “to tragic human error.”
He said the transport minister’s decision to resign was honorable, and added that the heads of Hellenic Railways Organization and its subsidiary ERGOSE have also submitted their resignations.
The news of the accident has been profoundly sad for Britain’s King Charles and his wife, the Queen consort, according to a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “My thoughts go out to the families of the victims of the terrible accident that took place last night near Larissa. France is with the Greeks.
According to Associated Press: Construction material on a freight train from Greece’s Carnival to Portugal during the Lent festival in December 2005, the media agency ERT reported
Many of the passengers were students returning from Carnival, a three-day festival that precedes the religious season of Lent, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile Greece’s public media agency, ERT, reported that the freight train likely carried construction material, such as heavy steel plates.