By Yannis Anifantis

The meeting of the parliamentary inquiry committee investigating the causes of the train accident was held in the midst of intense debates, in the wake of publications about the health of the driver of the Tempe passenger train, who was reportedly facing serious health problems.

During her testimony at the examination, its president Railway Regulatory Authority (RAS), Ioanna Tsiaparikou he argued that “there is a certificate by which the train driver is deemed competent”, even passing it on to the members of the committee. After processing the filed documents, the majority decided that they were incomplete, with Lazaros Tsavdaridis asking for the complete medical file of the train driver, asking whether or not the health problems he was facing had been detected and the committee president Dimitris Markopoulos speaking of a ” draft, therefore insufficient” document, pointing out that he does not have “even the AMKA” of the train driver.

SYRIZA requested the transmission of the certificates to the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, in order to check their authenticity, with the atmosphere electrifying after a report by opposition MP Vassilis Kokkalis, who accused the majority of having reached the point of incriminating the dead. “Take it back. We return it to you. You took the initiative to keep the process open here. We will not allow grave-digging here,” replied Dimitris Markopoulos angrily, calling on the opposition MPs not to “politically exploit such a sensitive case”.

The first focus of tension, however, was the refusal of the former heads of ERGOSE Thanos Vourdas and Marios Dionellis to testify, citing the prosecution after the conclusion of the European public prosecutor’s office on the 717 contract. The ND accused SYRIZA of a 180-degree turn, claiming that the member of the official opposition, Mr. Kokkalis, separated the disputed contract from the accident with his statements, with him replying that the ND is speculating on this issue. Circles of the ruling majority report that the SYRIZA MP “argued in favor of the testimony of the former president of ERGOSE, Mr. Bourdas to the committee, arguing that he has not been prosecuted for Tempi, but for 717. That is, he completely separated the contract from the accident. He went even further, saying that the 717 “didn’t cause the accident and we all agree on that.” If everyone agrees, then it’s time to start the real investigation of the causes and assigning the corresponding responsibilities.”

The meeting was interrupted shortly after two in the afternoon and will continue tomorrow at 10 in the morning, with the examining committee requesting that the complete medical file of the train driver be forwarded to it from RAS.