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Athens: The Greek prime minister on Sunday requested for forgiveness from the households of the 57 lifeless within the nation’s worst rail catastrophe forward of a serious rally by college students and rail staff in Athens.
“As prime minister, I owe it to everybody, however particularly to the victims’ kinfolk, (to ask for) forgiveness,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message addressed to the nation.
The crash between passenger and freight trains has sparked widespread outrage throughout Greece.
“For the Greece of 2023, two trains heading in numerous instructions can’t run on the identical line and nobody discover,” Mitsotakis stated within the message posted on his Fb web page.
Family members and family members of these killed in Tuesday’s devastating prepare crash have been additionally anticipated to collect Sunday for a memorial exterior Larissa station, central Greece, close to the location of the accident.
The station grasp implicated within the catastrophe was due in courtroom on Sunday, a listening to postponed from the day gone by, the place he could face expenses of negligent murder.
Hellenic Practice, the rail firm that has turn into the main focus of among the anger expressed within the wake of the crash, launched an announcement late Saturday defending its actions.
A whole lot of individuals had demonstrated through the week exterior their Athens headquarters, and one authorized supply has stated that investigators are taking a look at the opportunity of bringing expenses in opposition to senior members of the corporate.
Over the previous couple of days, rail union officers have insisted they warned the corporate concerning the issues of safety on the road. Exhausting questions are additionally being requested of the federal government over its failure to pursue rail security reforms.
– Grief and anger –
The demonstrations and vigils throughout Greece have expressed a mix of grief and anger on the catastrophe, which occurred when a passenger prepare and a freight prepare collided.
Sunday’s demonstration in Athens might be within the capital’s Syntagma Sq., subsequent to parliament, already the scene of clashes between police and offended protesters on Friday night time.
Candle-lit marches and ceremonies have been held in reminiscence of the victims of the accident, lots of them college students who have been getting back from a weekend break.
“What occurred was not an accident, it was against the law,” stated one protester, Sophia Hatzopoulou, 23, a philosophy pupil in Thessaloniki.
“We are able to’t watch all this occur and stay detached.”
No less than 9 younger individuals learning at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle College have been amongst these killed on the passenger prepare.
– ‘New parts’ in case –
The station grasp at Larissa, whose identification has not been made public, has admitted duty for the accident, which occurred after the 2 trains ran alongside the identical observe for a number of kilometres.
The 59-year-old man, if he’s charged with negligent murder, faces life in jail if convicted.
However his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis insisted Saturday: “Within the case, there are vital new parts that should be examined.”
Particulars have emerged in Greek media of the station grasp’s relative inexperience within the submit and the truth that he was left unsupervised throughout a busy vacation weekend.
– Security warnings –
“These are significantly tough days for the nation and for our firm,” Hellenic Practice stated in an announcement late Saturday, declaring that it had misplaced 9 of its personal staff within the crash.
Its employees have been fast to succeed in the scene of the catastrophe and had been working carefully with rescue groups and the authorities ever since, the corporate added.
Kostas Genidounias, the pinnacle of the prepare drivers’ union OSE, has stated they’d already warned the authorities about security failings on the road the place the crash occurred.
And union leaders at Hellenic Practice sounded the alarm simply three weeks in the past.
“We aren’t going to attend for the accident to occur to see these accountable shed crocodile tears,” they stated on the time.
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