The former head of the train safety and traffic department at the Hellenic Train company, Christos Retsinas, said on Monday that last week's deadly train crash would not have happened if the traffic control center that carried out a secondary check on railway traffic but was closed in 2020 had still been operating
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2023) The former head of the train safety and traffic department at the Hellenic Train company, Christos Retsinas, said on Monday that last week's deadly train crash would not have happened if the traffic control center that carried out a secondary check on railway traffic but was closed in 2020 had still been operating.
On Tuesday, a passenger train collided with a freight train near the city of Larissa, in central Greece. The passenger train had switched to the freight train's lane before the accident, which brought them both on the same track and resulted in a head-on collision. The Greek police said that 57 people had been killed and 48 others injured in the accident.
"Until the end of 2020 ... there was a traffic control center, it carried out a secondary control, the first control was carried out by the station master. Today it does not exist. We would not have missed the mistake of that station master in any way, we controlled the movement of trains throughout Greece," Retsinas told the ERT broadcaster, adding that it is necessary to resume the operation of the center.
He also added that he would not take the train from Athens to Thessaloniki.
"After what happened at the end of 2020, I would not go. I do not get on trains," Retsinas noted.
In addition, Retsinas said that he would not allow the railway connection to continue under the existing structure if he was the transport minister.
