New Audio Reveals Greek Station Manager Told Driver to 'Pass Red Signal' Moments Before Crash

In 2017, to comply with demands from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund to obtain debt relief during a financial crisis, Greece privatized its rail companies, selling the previously public utility to the Italian-based Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group.

The train crash that killed at least 57 people and hospitalized dozens more may have been caused by sheer negligence, recently release audio recordings have detailed.

The station manager, who was arrested before the audio was released, can be heard on the recording telling the driver of one of the trains to “pass the red signal” before it collided head-on with another train on February 28, local media reported.

The station manager, a 59-year-old whose name is not being released due to Greek laws, has been charged with manslaughter by negligence and other crimes. He initially denied any wrongdoing in the incident and blamed the crash on a technical error.

However, investigators have since found he failed to switch the rail line, allowing the passenger train and freight train to collide head-on going a combined 100 miles per hour. Later, the station manager would admit some fault for the crash. He is currently being held, awaiting trial.

The passenger train was traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki and was carrying roughly 350 passengers, many students returning from Carnival celebrations, a raucous party that occurs just before lent. The two trains collided under a highway in central Greece after one of the trains exited a tunnel.

Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, Greece, early Wednesday, March 1, 2023. The collision between a freight and passenger train occurred near Tempe, some 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens, and resulted in the derailment of several train cars.

© AP Photo / Vaggelis Kousioras

Survivors of the crash said the impact threw several passengers through the windows of the train. Rescuers confirmed those accounts, noting some bodies were found more than 100 feet away from the crash site. At least three of the train cars caught on fire, making it difficult for rescuers to identify some of the bodies.

Greek Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned shortly after the accident, “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.” Karamanlis says he did everything he could to improve train safety in Greece but the rail remains “in a state that doesn’t befit the 21st century.”

Protests erupted in Athens over the weekend in response to the tragedy, with 10,000 people filling the streets, according to local media. Demonstrators released black balloons to signify the lives lost and blame the crash policies that ignored train safety.

Rail workers also went on strike over the weekend, saying the crash was caused by a lack of safety regulations and equipment they have been requesting for years. Officials have stated that a surveillance and signaling system was obtained by Greece in 2000, but still had not been installed.

“Unfortunately, our long-standing demands for full-time staff hirings, better training and above all, implementation of up-to-date security systems have always ended up in the wastepaper basket,” a rail worker union said in a statement about the crash.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said such a system would have made the crash virtually impossible. “As prime minister, I owe everyone, but most of all the relatives of the victims, an apology,” Kyriakos said in a post on Facebook.