A year after the tragedy, a similar train accident almost happened in Tempe.
A new collision between two Hellenic Train passenger trains at the station of the Acharne railway center (SKA) was avoided a minute before the tragedy. A serious incident was recorded with trains No. 1313 on the Kiato-Piraeus route and No. 51 (Silver Arrow) on the Thessaloniki-Athens route.
According to the testimony of SKA employees, writes Ta Nea, train 1313 violated the red signal and almost crashed into train 51. The collision was avoided at the last minute before the disaster, thanks to the responsible attitude of the railway employee responsible for the SKA control panel. The worker literally yelled into the radio, calling the driver of train 1313 that he must stop immediately.
According to Ta Nea, in the locomotive cabin (control panel of the train) of the same train there was also a student driver, apparently undergoing training “live” (it is known that a full-time driver does not have the status of an instructor, so beginners are trained “in practice”) .
O.S.E.as an infrastructure manager, immediately began registration of this serious incident, while Hellenic Train initially attempted to downplay its “significance”. At the same time, the responsible officials of the company argued that the driver was not responsible for the incident, but that it was… “icing of the railway tracks.”
The current person in charge of the Hellenic Train is the former chairman of the train drivers, K. Geniduniya, who was summoned to appear before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Tempi disaster. However, even the responsible CEO of the company did not take any official steps, relying on the scenario… of “slipping.”
However, OSE insisted on investigating the incident, which due to its seriousness was reported to the Railway Regulatory Authority (RAS). At the same time, OSE, in order to draw its own conclusion, demanded from Hellenic Train a tachograph tape to check the absence of slipping, as well as a corresponding report from the train driver. According to traffic regulations, the speed of train 1313 should not exceed 60 km/h. However, the tachograph film recording the miss has not yet been transferred to OSE.
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