Station master charged in Tempe train crash released to house arrest
A man stands next to flowers and messages for the victims of a fatal train crash, at the closed train station of Thessaloniki, Greece, on March 24, 2023. [Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters]
A 60-year-old stationmaster who has been in pretrial detention for 16 months over his role in causing Greece’s deadliest train disaster was conditionally released on Thursday.
The investigative magistrate handling the case accepted his request to replace temporary detention with house arrest and a ban on leaving the country.
The stationmaster was jailed in March 2023 after he placed a southbound freight train and a northbound passenger train on the same track, killing 57 people, most of them university students returning from a long weekend break.
He is charged with endangering transport safety and multiple counts of negligent homicide and bodily harm. The transport safety charge, a felony, potentially carries a life sentence.
