With his summons former Minister of Transport & Communications K. Hatzidakis (2007-2009) and his former Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks D. Reppas (2009-2011) the examination of witnesses is repeated, after the festive season, from examination Committee “for his investigation crime of Tempo”. Messrs. Hatzidakis and Reppas will be summoned for examination on Tuesday, January 9. The following day, Wednesday January 10, the former Minister of Transport, Infrastructure & Networks M. Chrysochoidis (2013-2015) and the president/managing director of OSE, P. Theofanopoulos, will be invited, while on Thursday, January 11, the president/managing director of TRAINOSE (2010-2015) Th. Zeliaskopoulos and the president of the Railway Regulatory Authority (2011-2016), V. Tsiamantis.

During the today’s meeting the examination committee, which was joined by the former managing director of ERGOSE (2005-2008), Nick. current, the first cycle of witnesses, related to the period 1997-2004, was completed. Soon after, the committee decided, by majority vote, on the main list of witnesses to appear before the committee for the remainder of the case, from 2005 to 2023, when (February 28) the Tempe train collision occurred, with 57 dead.

The proposal of the majority in the committee, which was formulated by the ND MP, L. Tsavdaridis, included 35 persons, from specific categories of witnesses: Ministers, OSE, ERGOSE and TRAINOSE administrations, experts, representatives from the Railway Regulatory Authority, from the Legal Service of ERGOSE, from the Directorate of ERGOSE Projects, representatives of contractors, relatives of victims, trade unionists and the National Transparency Authority. During the discussion, the majority emphasized that the list is dynamic, and that “we can add other witnesses if necessary.” She even accepted two more witnesses, in addition to her initial proposal, namely the regional governor of Thessaly K. Agorastos and the former health minister Ath. Pleuris. The proposal was voted against by the MPs of the opposition parties, while the representative of Niki was absent.

SYRIZA-PS MP V. Kokkalis he said he voted against the majority proposal because the security system operators etc. were absent from the list. Kastrinakis and Terezakis, the representative of the train drivers Mr. Genidounias who “warned” about safety gaps and victims, the head of the coordinating body of Civil Protection Mr. Triandopoulos, Mrs. Koliopanou, who approved the “illegal” transfer of the station master, and the manager consultant of TRAINOSE, F. Tsalidis who signed a memorandum with Costas Karamanlis for the installation of the ECTS system, which however was “absent” from the final contract.

By the PASOK-Movement of Change, M. Apostolaki he said that it is not possible to examine persons who knew the OSE twenty years ago, and not call the former president of the OSE K. Spiliopoulos (2019-2020) who, upon resigning, had informed Mr. Karamanlis about the organization’s problems.

KKE MP N. Karathanasopoulos he said that from the examination of witnesses so far, the problem of security due to the privatization of OSE has been highlighted, while he mentioned, like the rest of the opposition MPs, deficiencies in the list of witnesses submitted by the ND.

The examination of N. Kurendas

Earlier, the former managing director of ERGOSE (2005-2008) Nik. Kourendas had said that the railway is the safest means of transport because it does not depend on a single person. Asked about the accident in Tempe, the witness said that two, three, four people must make a mistake at the same time for a head-on collision to occur. “It doesn’t happen (frontal) by one person’s mistake. In what happened in Tempe, the traffic regulations should not have been respected.”

Asked to give an opinion on the new safety systems that should be in place, he said: What I know is that, if the Traffic Regulations are followed, whether the ECTS is working or not, and the (necessary) actions are taken, there will be no accidents. If everyone works properly, we won’t have an accident [..] Technology is handled by people, said the former CEO of ERGOSE.

When asked by ND MP, K. Papakosta if he believes that the human factor was decisive, he said: “Of course I believe so.”

When asked by KKE MP N. Karathanasopoulos about the image of the railways today, he said that they are not in good condition. “I believe that the memorial period, during which the maintenance was stopped, has left big imprints,” said Mr. Kurendas.

Finally, in response to a question from the SYRIZA-PS MP, “if the accident happened during your days, would you immediately go to clean up the area of ​​the collision?” he said that “I would follow the orders of the authorities. If I were in charge, I wouldn’t mind anything.”