PM announces formation of experts panel to investigate rail collision in address

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the formation of an independent Experts Committee to investigate the causes of the railway accident that left at least 36 people dead in central Greece during an address on Wednesday.

“I have just returned from the site of a tragedy that will forever remain in our collective memory. Tens of our fellow Greeks, most of them young people, lost their lives there, in a terrible rail accident that is unprecedented in the history of our country,” said Mitsotakis in his address.

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the men and women of our state mechanism that mobilized immediately. Firefighters and rescuers, ambulance workers, Police, members of the local authority, as well as doctors, nurses, and psychologists in our hospitals. They have done and continue to do the very best the can under difficult conditions,” he said, adding that “I met with relatives of the victims and the missing at the Larissa Hospital. In their unspeakable pain, with great dignity, they asked me ‘why’. And they said to me, ‘never again’. We owe them an honest reply.”

“Transport and Infrastructure Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, assuming the objective political responsibility, immediately tended his resignation. So did the heads of Hellenic Railways Organization and its project branch ERGOSE. His stance does him credit, as everything points to the fact that the tragedy is, unfortunately, primarily down to a tragic human error.”

“Minister of State Georgios Gerapetritis will serve, until the national elections, as a transitional Transport Minister. I have already asked him to quickly form an independent and crossbench Experts Committee that will fully investigate the causes behind the accident. But it will also examine the longstanding delays in implementing railway projects. At the same time, Justice will do its own job. Responsibilities will be assigned. The state will stand by the families of the victims. We will mourn our children, our siblings, our friends. We will stand united in the face of this tragedy, and then, with our head bowed, we will grit our teeth. We will work to ensure that the ‘never again’ heard in Larissa does not become empty words. I promise you,” he concluded.