Greek station master due in court over rail disaster. Station master faces life imprisonment if found guilty of negligent homicide after train crash killed at least 57.
The station master involved in Greece’s worst-ever train disaster will appear in court on Saturday, as mass protests broke out over the crash that killed at least 57 people.
Thousands of protesters have demonstrated across the country since Tuesday’s collision between a passenger train and a freight train, with public anger mounting over the government’s failure to manage the rail network.
The 59-year-old station master at Larissa, central Greece, has admitted responsibility for the accident, which saw the two trains run along the same track for several kilometres.
The train was carrying many students returning from a holiday weekend and at least nine young people studying at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University were among the dead, while another 26 were injured.
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Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seeking re-election this spring, has blamed the disaster on “tragic human error”.
But protests blaming government mismanagement continued on Friday in the capital, Athens, and several major cities across Greece, with more planned for the weekend.
Greek station master due in court over rail disaster
What happened was not an accident, it was a crime,” Sophia Hatzopoulou, 23, a philosophy student in Thessaloniki who was visibly angry, told the AFP news agency. “We can’t watch all this happen and remain indifferent.”
She added that she and her classmates “knew people who were killed or wounded”.
“It’s as if a part of us were lost.”
The station master is due to appear in court on charges of negligent homicide. He faces life imprisonment if found guilty, but his lawyer has argued that other factors were at play. We shall update you of any new development in future.
Source: Al Jazeera
