Shocking is the testimony of a tour bus driver who was crossing the highway at the scene of the collision exactly one minute after the two trains collided in Tempe last Tuesday night.

He describes the tragic situation he witnessed, although he initially did not understand that it was a collision between two trains, but a train and a truck. When he realized what had happened he could not believe what he was seeing. In fact, he was the one who transported the first 50 passengers to Thessaloniki with his bus.

“They kept calling for help. Some were crying. Then a colleague calls me, and tells me to call Hellenic to tell them. They picked me up at 23:38 and they say are you the driver? What happened; I say two trains have crashed into each other. He tells me it’s impossible. I say you have sent an Athens-Thessaloniki train. 62 says yes. I say from Thessaloniki to Athena. He tells me from Larissa that it is commercial. I say they have crashed head-on. They tell me this cannot have happened. I say it’s in front of me. The machine became a car. I’m sorry to tell you, but I don’t think the driver is alive. There’s a fire to my right.”