“You’re scared by your neighbor, who screams ‘girl help me, my kids.’ The lady in front of you scares you because you didn’t recognize her from how her face has been disfigured, from the blood. Are you frightened by the screams of “we are burning, we are dying”
The testimonies of the survivors of the fatal train collision in Tempe on the dark night of February 28 are shocking.
A 26 years old girl from Thessaloniki, who survived the horrible accident – was in wagon 3 and spoke to Mega about the nightmares that haunt her and will likely haunt her for life.
“11.23pm: That’s how my carefree life ended. Staring death in the face. Don’t ask how it happened. The thing is, it happened. Everything just fades away, You open your eyes, you feel blood everywherepeople to have overwhelmed you, glasses all over your body, and to burn your face with the flame that is coming at you”, said the 26-year-old initially.
“But that doesn’t scare you. You are frightened by the person next to you, who screams at you “girl help me, my children”. You are frightened by the lady you saw during your whole journey in front of you, and now you did not recognize her from how her face has been distorted, from the blood. Are you frightened by the screams of “we are burning, we are dying”. And just there you become “one” with the other stranger who we didn’t speak to during the entire trip: We have to jump off the train. The wagon has turned, we can’t get out. Break the window. We burn, fast. We will make it.”, added the girl afterwards.
The 26-year-old described the minutes before the collision: “There was a delay in Paleofarsala. They informed us that we will have a 20 minute mandatory stop because there was a problem with the lines. All of us in the wagons started complaining. There seems to have been heard the “let’s go wherever it goes” heard by a passenger over the radio. Then a new announcement came out that we would arrive in Thessaloniki at 12.25. and again complaints were heard from the passengers. The staff were upset but they wouldn’t tell us the reason.”
“There are two choices: Either you stay there or you get up and jump away”
THE Angelos Fanourakis he is one of the lucky – in their misfortune – passengers in the first 3 carriages of the fateful train.
The 20-year-old student – passenger at wagon 2 and of the few passengers who managed to escape the fierce collision and the high temperatures of the fire that broke out – he escaped with fractures to his lower back.
His physical wounds will soon heal but the mental ones will probably never be closed.
“I was in carriage two. At the time of the collision there was a very loud noise and at the same time a flash, then a gap and then came the derailment of the wagon. Darkness prevailed. Luckily there was a girl in my room holding a cell phone and I was able to take it for a lens and that’s how I found my cell phone. With the flashlight from my cell phone I found a window that was left and the three of us went through. I went to the central carriage and we got out of a window of the train”, described Angelos.
The student described placing suitcases outside the carriage to reduce the force of the fall.
“At that time I had in mind to get out of the wagon with the other two girls. My concentration was on it. One helped the other, we were strangers but at that time we became better than acquaintances,” he said about the first minutes after the collision.
“There are two options: Either you will stay there or you will get up and jump to run away,” said Angelos Fanourakis.
Source: Skai
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