Station master arrested as death toll reaches 36 : NPR

At least 36 people are dead and 66 have been hospitalized after a passenger train and a freight train collided on Tuesday night (local time) near the city of Larissa in Greece, according to local authorities.

Photos and video of the scene from Wednesday morning showed rescuers still maneuvering through twisted wreckage, searching for survivors.

By midday, with hope fading, investigators had begun turning to a question that’s become a familiar refrain in U.S. media following a major train derailment in Ohio earlier last month: What caused this crash?

Here’s a rundown of what we know.

How did the trains collide?

According to the national rail operator, the passenger train was carrying roughly 350 people at the time of the collision, traveling at high speed from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city.

The Associated Press reported that many of those passengers were students returning from Carnival, a three-day festival that precedes the religious season of Lent. The freight train was likely carrying construction material, such as heavy steel plates, according to Greece’s public media agency, ERT.

Though the trains appeared to be traveling on a double-track line, both trains appeared to be moving on the same track, heading towards each other. The trains collided, head-on, just before midnight local time, as the passenger train was exiting a tunnel under a highway in the municipality of Tempe.

Local media reports citing survivors suggest that the first two carriages of the passenger train were sent flying into the air, twisting backward and catching fire, leaving them completely disintegrated by morning.

The remaining line of carriages buckled and slid off the tracks, sending dozens of dazed people escaping into the dark.

What is the death toll?

As of Wednesday morning, rescue workers were still sorting through the mass of metal, searching for signs of life.

More than 150 firefighters and paramedics are on the scene, said Greek Fire Service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakogiannis in a media briefing. The crews are using cranes and construction equipment to help move some of the heaviest chunks of steel.

Most survivors of the crash were bused to Thessaloniki, where police took names to track the missing, Varthakogiannis said.

Citing several government sources, ERT reports that more than 66 people were hospitalized, and at least six were still in intensive care as of Wednesday. A total of 130 were injured.

The ERT also reported that the current death toll stands at 36 but is expected to rise as more victims are identified, a task that’s been complicated because temperatures exceeded 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit when fires broke out in the first three carriages.

Greece’s prime minister has declared three days of national mourning in the country.

What do we know about the cause?

According to a statement shared in local media, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned on Wednesday after visiting the crash scene, saying he felt it was his “duty” to step down “as a sign of respect for the memory of the people who died so unjustly.”

Earlier in the day, he pledged the causes of the crash would be investigated with full transparency and diligence.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis echoed that statement on Wednesday, saying in a tweet that “we will find out the causes of this tragedy and do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”

The BBC reports that the station master from the city of Larissa was arrested and charged with manslaughter by negligence. The 59-year-old Hellenic Train employee denied any wrongdoing, saying the accident may have been a technical failure.

Getting a full picture of what happened may take some time, authorities say. Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas said that the two drivers of the freight train were among the nine rail employees killed in the crash, reports the Associated Press.

Hellenic Train, the line’s operator, canceled dozens of its scheduled routes for Wednesday, saying in a statement that its “primary and exclusive concern” for the moment is to complete the evacuation and rescue process.

A teenage survivor told several reporters that he was riding in the fourth carriage when he felt a strong braking and saw sparks. Then everything suddenly stopped.

“Our carriage didn’t derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed,” he said, according to an AP account of the interview.

Are there parallels with the U.S. debate around rail safety?

Derek Gatopoulos, an AP reporter based in Athens, told NPR’s Up First that the collision is likely to spark a debate around rail safety. It may mirror the one taking place in the U.S. following the aftermath of an Ohio train derailment that sent hazardous materials spilling into the surrounding residential area.

An initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board stopped short of declaring a conclusive cause of the Ohio derailment, but said a wheel bearing overheated, raising questions of whether the train’s safety sensors and procedures were sufficient.

Gatopoulos said Greece’s rail system is “almost sleepy” and generally seen as “quite safe,” given it’s largely limited to lines between major cities.

As part of Greece’s international bailout amidst an economic crisis, Greece privatized its rail system in 2017, selling its lines to the Italian state railway group, Ferrovie dello Stato.

The collision is already raising questions about whether lines, systems and signaling equipment were properly inspected during the sale, Gatopoulos said.