The head of Greece’s national investigation into the 2023 train disaster resigned on Wednesday, a decision likely to complicate efforts to clarify the circumstances surrounding the nation’s deadliest rail accident, which resulted in 57 fatalities.
Public opinion polls indicate that many Greeks perceive the crash as a symbol of the long-standing neglect of the railway system and the government’s ongoing failure to address safety issues. The incident has sparked widespread protests, exacerbated by a growing distrust in governmental institutions.
Christos Papadimitriou, who led the railway division at Greece’s Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA), stepped down shortly after a senior court prosecutor initiated an inquiry into HARSIA’s conclusions.
In February, HARSIA reported that the safety deficiencies that contributed to the head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train on February 28, 2023, had not yet been rectified.
The investigation also revealed that the fireball resulting from the collision could not have originated from the train’s equipment, raising questions about the freight train’s cargo and leading to political disputes.
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This week, HARSIA opted to remove the section discussing the fireball’s causes after at least one of the foreign universities referenced in its report stated it had neither reviewed nor approved the content.
Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutor has ordered an investigation into these developments to ascertain whether there was an attempt to sway an ongoing judicial inquiry that began in 2023.
HARSIA, established as an independent authority only in late 2023, commenced its investigation in March 2024, over a year after the crash, which necessitated reliance on external sources for much of its data.
In his resignation letter, Papadimitriou expressed, “I endeavored to serve the public interest… in a challenging context,” while affirming HARSIA’s primary findings.
