Greek railroad disaster: Rapid developments – The inspector and two station masters are being prosecuted

The circle of defendants for the tragedy in Tempi is expanding. The district attorney’s office filed additional criminal charges against three individuals for disturbing the safety of transportation, a felony punishable by ten years to life, as well as the misdemeanor counts of manslaughter and aggravated assault.

The “3” in the crosshairs

Prosecutions were brought against the OSE inspector who put the Larissa station master, who has already been remanded in custody, on the night shift, but also against two station masters who were supposed to be present until 11 in the evening and left earlier, abandoning their post.

It is noted that, for Friday, the Plenary Assembly of the Appellates of Larissa, 21 senior judges in total, has been set to be convened, in order to select the two appellate investigators who will in the future run the investigations after the initiative to upgrade the investigations, made by the superior Larissa Appeals Prosecutor’s Office Stamatis Daskalopoulos, who supervises the investigations in their entirety from the first moment by order of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Isidoros Dogiakos.

Audio documents in the hands of Larisa investigator

Evidence that sheds light on the case of the accident in Tempi is being collected by the Larissa investigator, while today she is in the process of comparing the statements received so far, with the conversations from the radio – wireless of the night of the accident.

The investigator’s goal is to fully understand what happened that night in order to identify what led to the accident and attribute responsibility. According to information, at the same time, the investigator is calling the persons involved, until now, for additional statements.

Where does the Larissa inspector lay the blame?

At the same time, he blamed the station master of the afternoon shift and the dead driver of the passenger train. “The train driver certainly realized that he came to the descending line and he should ask himself why he did not take model 1001. The specific driver Georgios  Koutsoumbas, as far as I know, has not been working on the Athens-Thessalonica line for the last time and has recently returned,” he said .

“When at 01:15 I met Vassilis Samaras, I asked him why he was alone, while there was a station master, he answered that Pavlopoulos (afternoon station master) handed over to him and left around 21:45 to 21:50. I asked Pavlopoulos again what time he left, and he replied that he left normally without specifying an exact time. I believe that if Pavlopoulos had secured train 2597, the accident might have been avoided…”.