An investigation into the Tempi train crash that killed 57 people is ongoing. On Friday, the media reported on three new suspects who have appeared in the case.
According to the Greek publication Kathimerini, which refers to sources in law enforcement agencies, the prosecutor’s office found “aggravating circumstances against three railway workers directly involved in the tragic incident.”
The first of these was a train traffic inspector in the Larissa region, who placed the inexperienced head of the station Vasilis Samaras, who had been in this position for only five days, on the night shift. It was he who so hastily went on sick leave at a time when there was a desperate operation to rescue people from the wrecked train. Earlier, 59-year-old Samaras, who sent a passenger train into the opposite direction, which led to a head-on collision of two trains at high speed, was arrested.
The number of new suspects, in addition to the inspector, included two employees of the same station, who were required to be on shift until 23:00. However, during interrogation it turned out that both of them had left earlier. Not together and at different times, but until 23:00, leaving Samaras, who did not have enough experience, to manage the movement of trains alone, having made a lot of mistakes.
Three new defendants have already been charged with violating traffic safety rules under aggravated circumstances. A criminal offense with this wording is punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten years to life imprisonment. Also, criminal cases were initiated against them under articles on causing death by negligence (according to the number of victims of the tragedy) and on causing bodily harm with the same criminal qualification.
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