2 years after Greece’s deadliest prepare crash, victims and households await solutions

ATHENS and THESSALONIKI, Greece — Evdokia Tsagli remembers laughing moments earlier than her prepare wagon spun by the air. The ordeal lasted seven seconds. For Tsagli, “It was like eternity.”

“I think I said over 100 times to myself, ‘When is it gonna stop?'” she remembers.

On Feb. 28, 2023, her carriage in a Greek passenger prepare landed on prime of the eating automobile forward, flames consuming the wreckage. The prepare, carrying a whole lot — a lot of them college college students — collided head-on with a freight prepare in Tempi Valley.

It was Greece’s deadliest railway catastrophe. Fifty-seven individuals died. Now, new proof means that many could not have been killed by the crash itself, however by a hearth that adopted.

Greek officers rapidly blamed the crash on human error, attributing the hearth to silicone-based cooling oil. However two years later, victims’ households and impartial investigators say that clarification does not maintain.

“We’re talking about a series of crimes,” says Tsagli, who managed to flee the prepare by climbing by a damaged window and climbing right down to security. She and different survivors, together with specialists employed by victims’ households, blame authorities negligence and accuse authorities of a cover-up, one thing the federal government denies. Huge protests are anticipated to convey elements of the nation to a halt on Friday, the second anniversary of the tragedy.

“I have very little oxygen”

A newly analyzed name made to the nationwide Greek emergency quantity on the night time of the crash has been fueling recent protests in opposition to the Greek authorities and the non-public and public railway firms concerned within the crash. Within the recording, a passenger may be heard saying: “I have very little oxygen.”

Forensic investigator Vasilis Kokotsakis, employed by victims’ households, says the audio — together with evaluation of video footage displaying the precise second of the collision from outdoors the trains — suggests an estimated 30 passengers initially survived the crash, however then have been burned alive.

Based mostly on their evaluation of photographic proof and chemical traces suggesting the presence of commercial solvents within the soil on the crash website, his workforce believes undeclared, extremely flammable chemical cargo — doubtless carried by the freight prepare, although there isn’t a option to know for positive — ignited on affect, making a fireball that engulfed a number of passenger vehicles.

The hearth reached temperatures of as much as 1,300 levels Celsius, Kokotsakis says, sufficient to burn victims past recognition. Specialists in fireplace issues and chemistry say this destruction can’t be defined by the declare that transformer oil prompted the hearth.

Allegations of a cover-up

Households and specialists accuse the federal government of suppressing key proof, claiming no forensic workforce documented the crash website earlier than particles elimination.

“Nothing was done correctly from the beginning,” Kokotsakis says.

Based on Kokotsakis, no less than 750 cubic meters of soil have been excavated from the crash website and dumped miles away, whereas the wreckage was moved to a different website.

The federal government has argued that the swift elimination of particles and soil was essential to stabilize the realm, stop new hazards and resume railway operations.

Extremely sought surveillance footage of the cargo prepare vanished, then resurfaced two years later. Based on a picture evaluation professional on Kokotsakis’ workforce, it was seemingly tampered with. Audio recordings of the conductor’s trade with the management room seem edited, additionally in accordance with Kokotsakis’ workforce, to shift blame from higher-level officers and systemic failures to the native station grasp.

“Either we’re talking about extraordinary incompetence or a concerted effort to hide something,” says Nikos Passas, a criminology professor at Northeastern College who’s finding out the crash as a specialist on corruption in Greece and isn’t concerned with the investigation instigated by the victims’ households.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has additionally confronted accusations by critics, together with opposition leaders and victims’ households, of interfering within the judicial investigation into the crash, fueling public mistrust.

The Greek authorities has persistently denied any cover-up or mishandling of the investigation. It didn’t reply to NPR’s questions for touch upon the allegations of negligence and a cover-up.

The leaked emergency name, impartial forensic findings and perceived missteps by the federal government have fueled public skepticism. A latest ballot discovered 72% of Greeks imagine there was a cover-up.

A sample of negligence and impunity?

Passas says the Tempi crash was a part of a broader sample of corruption in Greece. Regardless of European Union funding meant to modernize railways, vital security methods have been by no means absolutely carried out. Distant management and signaling expertise might have prevented the crash, however crucial upgrades by no means materialized, in accordance with railway specialists, unions and opposition officers.

Rail employees had issued repeated warnings about security dangers however claimed issues have been ignored. Following the tragedy, then-Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis tendered his resignation, acknowledging the persistent points affecting the railway system. He highlighted the inherited challenges from earlier administrations, noting that his authorities had obtained a railway system in a situation “incompatible with 21st century standards.”

The European Public Prosecutor’s Workplace — tasked, in accordance with its web site, with “investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests” of the European Union — tried to analyze former transport ministers’ roles within the catastrophe, however the Greek ruling social gathering blocked it.

Investigators with the Greek impartial authority chargeable for probing critical transportation accidents on Thursday issued a long-awaited report, which concluded the crash resulted partly from longstanding railway deficiencies and systemic infrastructural points, a few of which stay unresolved and have to be addressed as a way to stop one other tragedy.

The report by the Nationwide Group for the Investigation of Aviation and Railway Accidents and Transport Security additionally acknowledged the prevalence of fire-related deaths, however set the quantity at as much as seven people — far decrease than the estimate by Kokotsakis’ workforce. It additionally factors out shortcomings within the crash website investigation, noting that important forensic evaluation and mapping weren’t performed. 

 “This fight has become my life’s purpose”

Mistrust in official investigations has pushed households to hunt solutions on their very own. Unbiased specialists, together with Kokotsakis, have spent months reconstructing the occasions. Within the month because the audio was made public, the phrase “I have very little oxygen” has develop into a rallying cry in demonstrations demanding accountability.

Below rising stress and renewed protests, Prime Minister Mitsotakis not too long ago walked again his earlier claims that the freight prepare concerned within the crash was not carrying any hazardous or unlawful materials. In a prolonged interview in late January with Greek media, he stated “all possibilities remain open.”

For victims’ households, that admission is just too little, too late. Some at the moment are pushing for European courts to take up the case, claiming they mistrust the Greek justice system to make sure accountability.

Christos Konstantinidis, who misplaced his spouse within the crash, has spent two years demanding justice. “I have reached the point where I am neglecting my family, where I have abandoned my job,” he says. “This fight has become my life’s purpose.”