Reports: RR station master at center of rail disaster probe pleads negligence, shifts part of blame

The first leaks of testimony, before an investigating magistrate, by a railroad station master at the center of an intense probe into the causes of last Tuesday’s deadly train collision in north-central Greece reportedly have the latter shifting part of the blame on colleagues who left their posts earlier, as well as on the deceased engineer of one of the two obliterated locomotives.

The same reports, based on the leaked testimony, also claim that the 59-year-old downgraded his role in the rail disaster to mere negligence.

The employee of Greece’s state-run and owned rail network operator and owner, OSE, was the sole on-duty station master at the Larissa terminal on Tuesday night. Preliminary findings have him mistakenly switching a north-bound passenger train onto the tracks of a south-bound freight train. The two trains were on a collision course for more than 12 minutes without anyone, at the station office or aboard the trains, realizing the tragic error.

According to reports, station master was on his fifth straight evening-to- early-morning shift on the night of the collision. The shift begins at 22.00 and ends at 7 a.m., a schedule that fits with the 13 train passing through Larissa, of which nine are between 22.09 and 00.30.

The station master, in remand pending the pre-trial judicial investigation, said three station masters should have been on duty between 22.00 and 23.00 on the evening of the crash.

He claimed two other colleagues left their shift early.

Meanwhile, one marginal but telling incident related to the calamity is a furor that erupted with a report that the station master’s supervisor sought and received a 30-day medical leave from a state hospital physician a few hours after the train collision, ostensibly for back pain.

In a decision on Tuesday, the socialist PASOK party announced that a hospital department head, who allegedly intervened to have a subordinate issue a “blind” diagnosis and the medical leave, will be removed from a ballot for the upcoming general election.

The same physician, a neurosurgeon by training, has been reportedly suspended, pending a full investigation.

The victims total has officially reached 57.