Train collision: The sole survivor of the first carriage remains in a very critical condition

The sole survivor of the first carriage from the fatal train collision in Tempi continues to fight for his life.

20-year-old Gerasimos has been in a very critical condition in the ICU of the Larissa general hospital since the evening of the fatal train tragedy in Tempi.

The young man’s parents spoke to MEGA and thanked those who pray for their son and those who send messages of support.

They themselves characterised the doctors as “angels”, saying that the condition of their child is in the hands of the Virgin Mary. They also revealed that the 20-year-old’s belongings were found intact from the first carriage, even his laptop, which only had a small crack.

It is recalled that at the time of the collision, the 20-year-old was thrown from the carriage into the fields and has many brain injuries.

At least 57 people died last Tuesday night when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train.

The collision took place near the northern Greek city of Larissa, in the Tempi Valley, some 380 kilometres north of Athens.

Greece’s government has blamed human error, and prosecutors have charged the local station master with negligent homicide and bodily harm, as well as disrupting transportation.

Protests broke out in multiple Greek cities in the wake of the collision against the perceived lack of safety measures in Greece’s rail network.

Funerals for some of those killed in the crash—many of whom were in their late teens and early 20s—have been held in recent days.

Greece has seen widespread demonstrations since Tuesday’s high-speed crash, with tens of thousands of protesters gathering to demand better safety standards.

The violent scenes on Sunday in central Athens, the nation’s capital, were quickly dispelled by riot police using stun grenades and tear gas.

Most of the approximately 10,000 students, railway workers, and others who attended demonstrated peacefully, while also expressing sympathy for the lives lost in the accident.

The late-night passenger train was packed with university students who were returning from a long holiday weekend, heading north from Athens to Thessaloniki.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed the crash on “tragic human error”.

Some signs being carried in Athens on Sunday referred to the train crash as a “crime”.

“Their policies cost human lives,” said another, referring to underinvestment in rail infrastructure dating back to Greece’s debt crisis that lasted from 2010 to 2018.

Rail unions say the network has not been up to standard for years, with a planned remote surveillance and signalling system not yet delivered. They are demanding the government commits to a timetable for its implementation.

Mitsotakis has acknowledged that, had the system been in place, “it would have been, in practice, impossible for this accident to happen”.

In the meantime, railway workers have been staging walkouts to denounce the cost-cutting measures.

While Greece’s people await government action, a station master in Larissa who was on duty at the time of the crash faces charges of endangering lives and disrupting public transport.

He appeared before a magistrate on Sunday, but cannot be named for legal reasons.

A Greek railway employee has been jailed pending trial over a train crash that killed at least 57 people.

The railway employee, who cannot be named under Greek law, was the stationmaster in the central city of Larissa, where the train crash took place.

He faces multiple charges of disrupting transport and putting lives at risk.

The transport safety charge potentially carries a life sentence, according to the eKathimerini newspaper.

“For about 20 cursed minutes he was responsible for the safety of the whole of central Greece,” his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartzidis said.

Pantzartzidis has previously said that his client was devastated and had assumed responsibility “proportionate to him”, but other factors were also at play, without elaborating.

Railway workers say the country’s rail network has been creaking under cost-cutting and underinvestment, a legacy of Greece’s debilitating debt crisis from 2010 to 2018.

READ MORE: Greek PM asks Supreme Court to expedite prosecutions over train crash.