Persistent calls of a passenger train driver on a fateful night

The driver of train IC-62 was on the phone for 17 minutes to find out what was going on. He did not manage to get through to the head of the station, who, apparently, went to a party, or to the driver of the oncoming train, who was from another brigade …

The driver of the fatal passenger train, Giorgos Koutsoumbas, for 17 minutes, from 23:04 to 23:21, from the moment when Intercity collided head-on with a freight train, desperately tried to talk to someone in order to stop the death train.

Unanswered calls to the head of the Larisa station and his colleagues

For 17 minutes, Giorgos Kutsumbas persistently called the head of the Larisa station, without receiving an answer, as well as his colleagues, train drivers, which usually traveled this route to Athens to confirm their worst suspicions. If the freight train was going along the same path, as he feared, towards him.

“At first, when Giorgos realized that things were probably going wrong, he tried to contact the stationmaster. He called him, shouted into the phone, but he did not answer. Then he began to look for freight train drivers on the phone to find out who left Thessaloniki and which way he was going, ”says his colleague.

Driver shift changed

According to Live News, the driver of the Intercity train, without confirmation from the head of the Larisa station, relied on his experience. Almost certain that an oncoming freight train from Thessaloniki was on the same track, he began to call the drivers of the freight train, which, according to him, was supposed to go towards him that night.

But change has changed…

“The Intercity driver called everyone he knew and was looking for freight train drivers. But the shift changed, and others took their place. The drivers he knew usually had to follow this route, but in the end others went. Georgios tried to find out Is there a train coming towards him?

“The station master didn’t know how to use the CCB*”

According to the newspaper “TA NEA”, the head of the station Larisa did not know how to use the control panel STsBin front of it, and how to “switch” paths. Here’s what the experts say: “If he could read the testimony, he would have three minutes, 180 seconds to take corrective action and prevent the tragedy in Tempi.” From 23:04, when the fatal train No. 62 left Larisa station, until 23:07, i.e. at a distance of 5.5 km, the local control system and the CCB control panel in front of the stationmaster warned him that the train was on the wrong track.

“Larisa station has a local signaling control panel. This means that at some distance before and after the station there are light signals, sensors and line circuits indicating the presence of a train. This system has been operating since November 2022, and I myself checked it immediately after the accident “says the management consultant ose Panagiotis Tezerakis.

Taking data from the mobile phones of all participants in the accident will make it possible to find out who the driver of the passenger train managed to contact in the decisive minutes before the collision.

* Signaling, centralization and blocking devices (SCB) – a set of technical means used to regulate and ensure the safety of train traffic (prevent collisions, derailments and other accidents).

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