Train crash in Greece kills dozens, cause likely human error

(Bloomberg) -- At least 38 people were killed and 72 more were injured in a train crash in northeast Greece late Tuesday night, a tragedy that prompted the country’s top transportation official to step down. 

The crash, the country’s worst in decades, took place in the Tempe valley after a passenger train traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki collided with a cargo train, igniting a fire. Temperatures in the burning train car reached 2,372 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“When something so tragic happens, it is not possible to continue as if it didn’t happen,” Kostas Karamanlis, Greece’s minister for infrastructure and transportation, said in his resignation statement on Wednesday. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also accepted the resignation of the head of OSE, the rail infrastructure manager, as well as from the head of Ergose, subsidiary of OSE that operates the company’s investment program. 

“Everything shows that the drama is due, unfortunately, mainly to tragic human error,” he said. 

The government is investigating the circumstances that led to the incident. The two trains were on the same track, but traveling in opposite directions for many kilometers before the collision, according to government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou.

The passenger train was operated by the company formerly known as Trainose, which was renamed Hellenic Train in 2021. In 2017, it was sold to the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group. 

The fire brigade said it learned of the accident, which took place near the city of Larissa, just before midnight on Tuesday. Of the 72 passengers who have been hospitalized, six are in intensive care units.  

A search and rescue operation is ongoing, and authorities have launched a probe into the cause of the accident. So far, a station master has been arrested. 

(Updates with prime minister’s comments in fourth paragraph.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.