Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says that human error in the trains’ collision should not absolve them of responsibility for the long-suffering rail network.
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Protesters throw Molotov cocktails in Athens following the two trains collided
Today, Sunday, clashes erupted in the center of the Greek capital, Athens, between the police and a group of demonstrators, on the sidelines of a protest by thousands of university students and railway workers, due to an accident considered the most deadly in Greece’s recent memory.
A small group of protesters threw petrol bombs at the police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, before the protesters dispersed into nearby streets.
Clashes erupt in Athens while thousands protest the #Greecetraincrash putting the blame on the government. #Greece pic.twitter.com/w4CUjjpjmN
— Savvas Karmaniolas (@savvaskarma) March 5, 2023
About 57 people were killed and dozens injured, last Tuesday, when a passenger train carrying more than 350 people on board collided with a freight train that was on the same track line in central Greece.
After protests over the past three days across the country, some 10,000 students, railway workers and left-wing party groups gathered in an Athens square today to mourn the loss of their lives and to demand better safety standards on the railway network.
“This crime will not be forgotten,” the protesters chanted as they launched black balloons into the sky. And they wrote on a banner they raised the phrase, “Their policies lead to human losses.”
attempted murder!#antireport #athens #GreeceTrainAccident #greece pic.twitter.com/Ianf0a6jcQ
— Yucel Tekin (@panopticcosmos) March 5, 2023
The train from Athens to Thessaloniki in the north of the country was packed with university students returning from a long weekend.
Railway workers who also lost colleagues in the accident have held rotations of strikes since Wednesday to decry spending cuts and underinvestment in rail infrastructure, a legacy of the debt crisis that blighted Greece from 2010-2018.
The government said the accident was caused by human error. But Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday that human error should not absolve him of responsibility for the rail network’s long-suffering.
He wrote in a message addressed to the Greeks, which he posted privately on his Facebook account: “As prime minister, I owe it to everyone, especially to the relatives of the victims, to (ask) forgiveness.”
Rail unions say safety systems at the network level have been flawed for years, as the remote monitoring and signaling system was not implemented on time. She called on the government to provide a timetable for implementing the safety protocols.
“If there was a remote signaling system in the railway network, it would have been practically impossible for the accident to happen,” Mitsotakis said.
“Greece will announce action soon,” he said, adding that “Athens will seek the expertise of the European Commission and other countries to improve railway safety.”
Pope Francis, Pope of the Vatican, said today, Sunday, to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, “I pray for the dead, I sympathize with the wounded and their relatives.”
These past days, my thought has been often gone to the victims of the train accident that happened in Greece. Many were young students. I am praying for the deceased. I am near the wounded and their relatives. May Our Lady comfort them.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 5, 2023
