Relatives bury loved ones of those killed in train accident in Greece
2023.03.03 13:55
Relatives bury loved ones of those killed in train accident in Greece
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – As the coffin of a 34-year-old mother who was killed in Greece’s deadliest train accident was lifted up the stairs of a church on Friday, friends and families in black clung to one another in tears.
The first known funeral after the accident on Tuesday night, which killed at least 57 people, took place in the northern town of Katerini. Police said 52 bodies had been identified so far, almost all of them through DNA tests because of the violent crash.
In central Greece, a passenger train and a freight train collided at high speed on the same track, throwing carriages off the tracks and some of them into flames.
The passenger train carried more than 350 passengers, many of whom were university students returning to the northern town of Thessaloniki from Athens, the capital, after a long holiday weekend.
The crash, which the government says was caused by human error but unions say was inevitable due to poor maintenance and signaling, has sparked outrage across the nation.
On Friday, approximately 2,000 students in Athens blocked the road in front of parliament for a moment of silence following evening protests the previous two days.
Protests were anticipated later in the day in other cities, and students also demonstrated in Larissa, the central city near the crash site.
Black balloons were held up by students. One banner read, ” It was murder, not an accident.” On the street, the word “Murderers” was written in red.
Aggelos Thomopolous, a 21-year-old student, said, “Most of all we feel rage that this could happen in the year 2023, how two trains can collide… when there is so much technology.”
How do you think I feel, you ask? Maria Choremi, an 18-year-old student, said, “It’s a shame.” She said, referring to politicians, that “all of Greece is crying from morning to evening while they sit in their offices drinking coffee.”
The parents of a 22-year-old man waited in agony outside the hospital in Larissa, where many of the victims were taken, to find out what had happened to their son.
“That’s exactly what happened: they killed him. “They are all murderers,” Panos Routsi stated.
His son Denis had informed him that he would call if he was late shortly before the accident. “I continue to wait,” Routsi stated.
To see friends, Denis had traveled to Athens. Mirela, his mother, showed reporters a picture of her smiling son on her phone.
Seven of the 38 passengers still undergoing treatment in the hospital on Friday were in intensive care.
Thursday’s strike by railroad workers was extended by another 48 hours on Friday.
Students in Athens wrote “Call me when you get there” on their bags in the schoolyard, which has become one of the protest slogans.
Outside of parliament, protesters also wrote the slogan on candles.
His lawyer stated that the 59-year-old station master of Larissa was taken into custody and has admitted some guilt, pointing out that he was not the only one to blame.
The main railworkers’ union demanded a meeting with the new transport minister, who was appointed following the crash with the mandate to ensure that such a tragedy does not occur again. “The federation has been sounding alarm bells for so many years, but it has never been taken seriously,” the union stated.
The union stated that it desired a precise implementation schedule for safety protocols.
Politicians from the opposition also started to criticize.
Popi Tsapanidou, a spokesperson for the left-leaning Syriza party, Greece’s main opposition party, stated, “Any effort to hide and cover up the truth over the Tempi tragedy is disrespecting the dead and foretelling new tragedies.”
The government had said that an election would be held in the spring, with April 9 being the most likely date, prior to the crash. According to political analysts, that strategy may now be postponed.
