A high-level judicial investigation and intense media scrutiny in Greece continues to focus on the only on-duty station master in charge of rail traffic in the city of Larissa on the ill-fated evening when two trains collided head-on at the Tempi Valley site.
The worst rail disaster in Greece’s history has claimed the lives of 56 people, and the injury of scores of others, with at least five passengers still treated in hospital ICUs.
According to media reports, the 59-year-old station master – a 19th century term that corresponds with rail traffic director in the modern era – received deficient training, both practical and in theory.
The specific employee of the state-run Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) was apparently posted at the Larissa train station immediately after completing his training shifts. He was previously a baggage handler for OSE before achieving a civil servant’s transfer to the education ministry, and then returning in a supervisory position with the country’s rail operator and owner.
On the fateful evening-to-early-morning shift, he was left alone by two other more senior station masters, who ended their shifts earlier than foreseen.
A television report aired by the Athens-based Mega Channel has the specific employee assigned to the busy station after just two-and-a-half months of training, between August 2022 and October 2022, but 200 hours of required training unfulfilled.
He was remanded in pre-trial custody a day after the Feb. 28 Tempi train collision.
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