“Three and a half years after the crime at Tempi, the railway’s basic safety and communication systems, ETCS and GSM-R, are still not in full operation across the entire network, as was highlighted during our visit to Larissa and Athens, in the context of the mission of the Petitions Committee (PETI) of the European Parliament,” it is noted in a joint statement by G. Maniatis, vice-president of the European Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and MEP Isilda Gomes (S&D), in the context of the mission of the Petitions Committee (PETI) of the European Parliament to Larissa and Athens.
As they point out, “although belatedly and after pressure steps have been taken in the right direction, the railway still does not fully converge with European standards.
During our mission, we met with the Association of Relatives of Victims of the Tempi tragedy, with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Chr. Dimas and G. Kotsiras, with the Regional Governor of Thessaly Dimitris Koureta, with OSE officials, as well as with OSE workers’ unions.
In the meetings, the two dimensions of the double crime of Tempi were highlighted. The first concerns the terrifying deficiencies in basic safety rules that did not prevent the head-on collision of the two trains and the loss of 57 human lives. The second concerns the alteration of the accident site immediately after the collision, with the “covering over” and the transfer of material that also contained human bones, without judicial authorization. In our relevant question regarding the alteration of the accident site, EODASAAM clarified that based on its prescribed procedures, it would not have allowed any “covering over,” except only after the investigations had been completed and following relevant authorization from the supervising judicial and police authority.
As regards European funding for projects such as the installation of ETCS under contract 717, the system is not in full operation, approximately twelve years later.
We expect the Greek judicial authorities to carry out their duties with full independence, so that the five judicial investigations currently underway lead to the attribution of criminal responsibility where it belongs.”