The human error of the – inexperienced – station master on duty at the Larissa station and the huge deficiencies in the security and remote control systems led to the Tempe tragedy, with at least 57 people dying a gruesome death in last Tuesday’s collision.
The revelation of in, for the time frame of operation of the remote control system at the Larissa station is also confirmed by the station masters, with whom the head of Transparency of SYRIZA-PS Yiannis Ragousis spoke.
Passengers became one with the shapeless masses of hardware
“We had the opportunity to talk with active station masters, conversations from which, in my opinion, a very serious new fact emerged, for which we will inform competently and make detailed and official statements and which will certainly shed more light on what are the responsibilities and where do they belong for this great national tragedy,” said Mr. Ragousis.
According to the head of SYRIZA’s Transparency department, “the new data has to do with remote control, which, as the current station masters told us, existed and operated at the Larissa station until the summer of 2019.”
Closed due to fire
As Mr. Ragousis underlined, the reason why the operation of the remote control stopped was a fire that broke out at the Zachareos station, which led to the termination of the remote control.
“At that time remote control had a problem with various incidents of theft along the route. But there was remote control and it enabled the Larissa station to “see” at a very long distance just before Platy of Imathia for about 110 kilometers,” added Mr. Ragousis.
“Which means that while the remote control system was in operation, i.e. until the summer of 2019, the Larissa station was not “blind”, but could monitor the course and evolution of the train’s course” added the SYRIZA Transparency department head -PS.
Two station masters on each shift
At the same time, Mr. Ragousis argued that in previous years there was never a time when there would be only one station master on each shift.
“At the same time, it is very important that, as we were informed, the operation of the remote control from 2004 to 2019 resulted in the space here where the station master is located when the trains come and go, and that it exists and works the remote control center with a remote control station master,” he emphasized.
“So, during the entire 24-hour period as explained to us each day, we had two station masters. A conventional station master and a second, alongside the first station master, the remote control station master” he added, underlining that “this stopped, as we were informed, in July 2019”.
The questions
Speaking to journalists, Yannis Ragousis repeated the questions of the official opposition about the causes that led to the tragedy of Tempi.
“Therefore, a reasonable question arises, how is it possible with a fire at the Zachareos station since the summer of 2019 that the damage was not repaired as soon as possible, and arrived today, from the summer of 2019 onwards, the Larissa station is operating without remote control and with one stationmaster instead of two?’ he wondered.
“These are very serious new data. We are not prosecutors, nor do we do an investigation, but it is of great importance to clarify the case” concluded Mr. Ragousis.
Unspeakable pain in Kastraki for the three little angels
