Transportation
What Led to Europe’s Deadliest Train Crash in a Decade
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called the collision that killed 57 people a “tragic human error,” but years of delays to automated systems and other safety features play a role as well.
Three days on, Greece is still reeling from the deadly train crash that killed 57 people and left many more hospitalized on Tuesday night.
The worst rail disaster to hit Europe in a decade, the crash occurred on a stretch of the route from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, when a passenger train, having been diverted on to a different track, collided head-on with a freight train. Most fatalities were young students, many of whom had congregated in the dining car at the front of the train on their return from a three-day holiday.