The Crash

The train crash occurred outside of Tempe, Greece, in the final hours of February 2023, as a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train. Dozens of people were killed on impact, and as the train then exploded into flames, several more people perished in the fire. It was the deadliest train crash ever recorded in Greece.

After the crash, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis claimed that “the drama is due, unfortunately, mainly to tragic human error.” But he quickly walked back this statement as Greece was convulsed with protests and outrage, pointing fingers at the government for systemic neglect and mismanagement.

There had been several warnings that rail safety standards in Greece were below-par prior to the crash. Railworkers had complained for years that traffic control and signaling systems, which would indicate that the trains were on collision course, were simply inoperable on that portion of the rail line. The chairman of the signaling and safety committee had already resigned in protest. Journalists had already published several investigations into profiteering and nondeadly collisions on train lines. Just a month before the Tempe crash, a railworkers’ trade union published a statement warning a crash was inevitable: “We will not wait for the accident to come to see them shedding crocodile tears making statements.”

Stalled-Out Investigations

In the weeks after the Tempe crash, three station managers and a supervisor were initially charged with endangering rail safety leading to the loss of life. This trial has not begun, but looks set to start this June.

Family members of those lost in the crash, as well as much of the Greek public, have insisted that more investigation needs to be done, that government officials should be prosecuted, and that the Greek state has largely avoided proper inquiries.

European Union member states are, in fact, required to establish independent national investigation bodies for rail accidents. Greece created a National Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Organization (EODASAAM) in January 2023 to comply with this regulation. However, the newly created body did not conduct an investigation into the Tempe crash, as it did not have a single railway-accident investigator on staff at the time of the accident.

The government instead formed a Tempe Train Collision Commission of Inquiry. It published findings last April that put blame on infrastructure, individuals, and organizations. But no criminal investigation followed.

There have also been other, unsatisfactory inquiries. In November, the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) set up a committee to internally investigate the tragedy. They produced a meager one-page report that, engineer Lakafosis says, has an error in the sequence of events. “This will not stand in court,” said Lakafosis. “This shows that there was no real proper investigation for this accident.” An internal investigation by the Hellenic Train company also produced a twenty-page report that found no responsibility on the company’s part.

In the days after the crash, the then transport minister resigned, but there has been no Greek investigation into wrongdoing of government officials. According to Greek law, investigations into misconduct or negligence by MPs can only be conducted by the parliament itself. But the Greek parliament has rejected proposals to set up investigative committees into former ministers’ responsibility in the crash.

In December, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against twenty-three suspects, including eighteen government officials, for criminal responsibility in the crash. But the Greek government again refused to investigate.

On March 11, a cross-party parliamentary committee investigating the causes of the crash was concluded and presented to parliament. The ruling New Democracy party filed a conclusion that the crash was largely due to mistakes made by the station-masters, stating: “If the rules of the General Traffic Regulation had been strictly followed, the accident would not have occurred.” Opposition leaders critiqued the inquiry as an inadequate “cover-up” that elided governmental responsibility. The association of the families released a statement calling the committee’s work “hasty and sloppy,” decrying it as “a governmental process that has become a travesty, an insult to our intelligence, disdain for our dead.” The complete findings of this parliamentary committee investigation will be discussed on Wednesday, March 20.

One man who was injured in the crash has also sued former transport minister Kostas Karamanlis, alleging manslaughter with likely intent, compromising the safety of transport, resulting in grievous bodily harm and the harm itself. But prosecution remains unlikely, due to the Greek regulation that ministers can only be investigated by parliament.

The head of the European prosecutor’s office has criticized Greece’s lack of investigation into governmental responsibility, and the Greek legislation, stating: “This kind of trauma cannot be healed without justice. This immunity should not exist and we should be allowed to complete our investigation.”

Many have also pointed out how much privatization and profiteering have undermined the system of oversight and funding for repairs and maintenance. In 2014, ERGOSE, the then state-owned company responsible for rail infrastructure, began a project with EU funding to deliver signaling and remote-control systems to the Greek rails. However this was never completed.

As part of the sell-offs of state assets driven by a painful austerity regime, Greece’s rail system was privatized in 2017. The day-to-day operations of the rails are now overseen by one private company, while infrastructure is maintained by another.

The EU Agency for Railways conducted a safety assessment of the Tempe collision, which has yet to be published. According to Reuters, this report states that EU regulations were not properly implemented, and chronic lack of investment and overlapping management agencies had led to mismanagement.

Individual and Systemic Failures

“We have to find what happened and the reason why all these mistakes happened at the same time,” Lakafosis told Jacobin. “What was the reason that these mistakes slipped through everything that could have prevented them — and how did this become such a serious accident?”

The investigation conducted by Lakafosis’s team found several individual and systemic failures that lead to the crash.

They found that the train drivers made the dangerous call of driving on the opposite line for several minutes and that the station master in Larissa was “seriously incompetent.” Lakafosis emphasizes that station masters are generally appointed not due to qualifications, but nepotism: “You have to know someone to be accepted there,” he said. “It has nothing to do with how good you are, you just have to know someone. And if you know someone you are accepted for training and you are guaranteed a station master position.”

On a more systemic level they found several gaps: the inoperable signaling system, a radio communication system that didn’t cover the whole route, and trains driving at high speeds despite regulations stating that when driving in adverse conditions (such as not having signaling systems) they must take proportional safety measures.

“They didn’t even have a working radio that covered every part of the route,” said Lakafosis. “People chose to operate like that for many years. . . . Systems were not installed in place, and this is another factor that could have prevented the accident.”

Beyond that, the expert commission created at the instigation of victims’ families pointed to questions that remain entirely unanswered — why did such a blaze break out just after the crash?

Lakafosis said evidence of a flammable substance was found in seven different locations at the crash site, but that no investigation was done to conclude why it was found there. He said CCTV footage of the freight train leaving Thessaloniki was never subpoenaed and was thus overwritten, and the site was bulldozed and cemented days after the crash.

“It is clear that this is not the way to do an investigation,” he said.

The experts commissioned by the families also argue that little has been done to change the safety of Greece’s rails in the year after the crash. They state that radio broadcasting regulations are not respected, the outdated signaling system has not been properly updated, and additional safety measures such as slowing down the trains on certain parts of the track have not been standardized.

Public Outrage

On the anniversary of the Tempe collision this February 28, tens of thousands filled the streets of Athens as Greece again went on strike. One protester held a sign: “One year later . . . fifty-seven souls demand justice.”

The strike had been called by unions in a variety of sectors demanding the state take responsibility for the crash, as well as demanding pay raises.

“One year later, we are back on the streets again, to shout out that we do not forget,” declared ADEDY, Greece’s largest public sector union, in their strike call. “We will continue the struggle to hold those responsible accountable and to nullify any attempt to cover up the responsibilities.” Such a call is urgent, if Greece is not to suffer similar avoidable tragedies.