From the profile he maintains on Facebook 59-year-old head of the station Larisa, blamed for the deadly Tempe train accident, one photo stands out. It was published on January 23, 2023 and shows him among six of his junior colleagues in front of one of the newly acquired trains running on the Athens-Thessaloniki route. “After graduation and certification, our good start.” Nothing foreshadowed then the tragedy, which was to follow only a month later.

A 59-year-old man worked for several years in operating environment. Information from his colleagues they state that he worked as a porter. In 2012-2013, as part of the organization’s consolidation program through staff reduction, it was transferred to another state body. information lead to the conclusion that this body was the Ministry of Education, without specifying what position he worked in. His colleague who spoke with “K”. on condition of anonymity, he stated that he would like to return to the OGE and “keep (i.e. retire) as a railway worker, as he started.” Taking advantage of the public mobility program, the 59-year-old man returned in 2022 from the Ministry of Education back to the Railway Organization.

His colleagues report that he completed a six-month training program before earning the required certification earlier in the year and being promoted to the privileged position of Larissa Station Master.

Age limit

As from the transfer to the Ministry of Education, he returned to the OGE and to this position, having passed the age barrier.

The last notification for the recruitment of station chiefs was published in November last year. Among the conditions, it stipulated that candidates must not be older than 42 years of age. The tender was for a total of 90 employees, 36 of whom were to be station masters. In particular, there were two “open” positions for Larisa: for an experienced station manager and for an inexperienced one with no work experience. It remains unclear how the 59-year-old man ended up in this particular post, as he was well over the age limit. That is, whether he was able to bypass the competition because of his past in the organization or there were other reasons.

However, the 59-year-old man had already been arrested early Wednesday afternoon and was charged with a felony yesterday for reckless serial homicide, reckless bodily harm and traffic violations. Yesterday he was taken to the prosecutor and investigator of Larisa, from whom he asked and received a sentence and is expected to apologize next Saturday. Although, according to information from the police, he initially tried to attribute the accident to an electronic system failure, during the pre-investigation apology he admitted that he had made a mistake. “The accused is literally devastated and has already taken on part of the duties assigned to him,” his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis told reporters.

In justice

At the same time, the first applications for filing a civil lawsuit by relatives of the victims have already been filed. Lawyer Giorgos Bartsokis, representing the interests of the victim, who is being treated at the orthopedic clinic of the Larisa hospital, said yesterday in his interview that “my client is in the orthopedic clinic along with three other passengers in one room. His condition is bad. His ribs are broken and he can’t move at all. A civil lawsuit has already been filed by criminologist Alexis Kougias, who represents the families of six passengers on the fateful Intercity.

In terms of the biological identification process, 55 DNA samples have been taken from bodies so far, 52 samples from passengers’ relatives, and 26 samples from human limbs. The Criminal Investigation Department conducted 24 identifications of the bodies.