The improper handling of the
accident site at Tempe in central Greece, where two trains
collided head-on on the night of February 28, 2023, resulted in
the loss of vital information, experts from the National
Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Organisation
(EODASAAM) said at the unveiling of its much-anticipated report
on the deadly disaster on Thursday, according to the daily
Kathimerini.
"What happened - with the evidence being destroyed in three
days - must never happen again," EODASAAM's lead investigator,
Kostas Kapetanidis, said at a press conference presenting the
report's findings, which paint a bleak picture of systematic
failings, human error, poor oversight, chaotic procedures, a
lack of coordination, and an almost complete lack of foresight,"
the daily reported.
On the cause of the collision, the report states that the
sequence of events that led to an undertrained stationmaster at
the understaffed Larissa station accidentally routing passenger
train IC-62 onto the same track as freight train 63503 on the
same track when they were travelling in opposite directions on
the night of February 28, 2023, "was highly affected by a
general lack of strict application of the prescribed structured
communication methodology."
Furthermore, "with the existing evidence [it] is impossible
to determine what exactly caused it, but simulations and expert
reports indicate the possible presence of a hitherto unknown
fuel," the report says, according to Kathimerini.
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