Why a train accident can change the political course of Greece?

The accident occurred on March 1st and dleft more than 50 dead, of the 350 passengers, mostly students, who were on the train that collided with a freight train in Tempe, about 235 miles (380 kilometers) north of Athens. Since that day, students and trade unionists have taken to the streets to protest and demand the government’s responsibility.

Right now some people are experiencing the sadness of burying their loved ones in northern Greece. Others are still waiting to receive news from the relatives who were traveling on the train and who can now only be recognized through DNA tests. It’s the only thing that works after this head-on collision, which ended in a fierce fire.

All the testimonies of uncertainty are overwhelming, for example that of Mirella Ruci, about her 22-year-old son Denis: “My son is not on any official list and I have no information. I beg anyone who may have seen him, in the car 5, seat 22, contact me,” he told the AP agency.

When a manager is not enough

Beyond the words of the families are the state actions and the truth is that in Greece, although there are modernization projects, A large part of the main railway control works continue to be operated manually, as in this case in which the collision occurred because the passenger railway traveled for several kilometers on the same track as a freight train; and the station master of the central city of Larissa did not divert one of the trains. Indeed it was a human error, but at this point the obsolete handling of the system cannot be ignored.

Although the name of the station manager has not been revealed, because Greek law does not allow it, it is known that he is 59 years old and has already acknowledged his responsibility. He is accused of placing two trains running in opposite directions on the same track. He must appear before a prosecutor and an examining magistrate as he faces multiple charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide, bodily harm and also disrupting transportation.

In this case, finding a single culprit has not proven to be the solution that the community expects. The human error is tangible proof of the security deficiencies of the Greek train network and the danger to which its passengers have been exposed for years. Many Greeks feel shocked, outraged and vulnerable that any of them could be in danger when using the Greek train network, which with this accident showed that it does not have the necessary safety mechanisms to reduce the impacts of human error.

The citizen’s cry for justice runs through the streets

For this reason, the protesters took cities such as Larissa and Athens, the Greek capital, to demand concrete actions from the Government. “Murderers”, read some banners. Others raised white balloons in memory of the victims, blocking the road in front of Parliament for a minute’s silence. Another banner read “Call me when you arrive,” a phrase that is one of the protest slogans.

Stelios Sourlas, a lawyer representing a 23-year-old victim of the crash, told Reuters: “The stationmaster may be the main culprit… but the responsibility is also broader: there are the rail operators and the officials whose job it was to ensure that security measures and procedures were applied correctly.

Unions have also expressed themselves. They claim that the maintenance of the network is deficient, despite improvements in recent years to increase the speed of trains. They have defined three problems that led to this chaos: mismanagement, poor maintenance, and outdated equipment.

They claim to have evidence of negligence, which they threaten to make public, such as that the electronic safeguards have not worked since the year 2000 and that a remote surveillance and signaling system has not been delivered on time. They have asked the government to provide a schedule for the application of security protocols. “The federation has been sounding the alarm for many years, but has never taken it seriously,” said the main railway union, which demanded a meeting with the new transport minister.

In addition, railway workers, who also lost colleagues in the accident, are holding rotating strikes to denounce spending cuts and underinvestment in rail infrastructure, a legacy of the debilitating Greek debt crisis of 2010-2018.

Five days that don’t seem enough

On the fifth day of demonstrations some 10,000 students, railway workers and groups affiliated with left-wing parties gathered in a square in Athens to express their condolences for the lives lost and demand better safety standards on the railway network.

The tension increased and a group of protesters set garbage containers on fire and threw Molotov cocktails at the police, who responded with tear gas and flash grenades.

The public forces also drove away a group of militants from a minority leftist party, who wanted to go to the offices of the company that runs the Greek railways, Hellenic Train, which is operated by the Italian company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, although the infrastructures The country’s railways, including security systems, depend on the state company OSE.

“This crime will not be forgotten,” protesters chanted as they launched black balloons into the sky. One banner read: “Your policies cost human lives.”

And what does the government do?

Meanwhile, the executive appointed a panel of experts to investigate and issue a report on the crash. One of them sparked controversy. This was Thanasis Ziliaskopoulos, who served as president and CEO of the country’s train operator from 2010 to 2015 and is currently the president of the Greek agency in charge of privatizing state assets. He had to resign after opposition parties and some media criticized his appointment.

Finally on Sunday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the conservative, said human error must not deflect responsibilities from a long-suffering rail network. “As Prime Minister, I owe everyone, but especially the relatives of the victims, an apology,” he wrote on Facebook. “Justice will very quickly investigate the tragedy and determine the responsibilities,” he promised.

Mitsotakis stated that if there had been a remote system on the entire rail network “it would have been, in practice, impossible for the accident to occur”. He announced that in addition to the measures, which he has not taken but which he assures will take, he will request advice from the European Commission and other countries to improve rail safety.

And even Pope Francis put his thoughts with the victims of the accident: “I pray for the dead, I am close to the injured and their families, and may the Virgin comfort them,” he said in his weekly address to the crowd in the Plaza de Saint Peter, Rome.

At this point, the escalation of the accident has reached the political sphere and may have a high cost for New Democracy, Mitsotakis’s conservative party, during the general elections scheduled for next spring, that is, at the beginning of April. However, only time will tell if the fury in the streets will finally be reflected in the country’s vote.

With Reuters, AP and AFP