Police and emergency crews search through the debris of a crushed wagon for second day after a train accident in the Tempi Valley near Larissa, Greece, March 2, 2023. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)
Athens: A Greek court has for the first time awarded compensation over a death in the 2023 Tempi train disaster, acknowledging the responsibility of the rail operators, ANA news agency reported on Saturday.
The Court of First Instance awarded a total of 800,000 euros (nearly $830,000) to the wife, children and sister of a ticket inspector who was among the 57 people who died in the crash on February 28 last year.
The accident happened when a passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki with more than 350 people on board collided head-on with a freight train near the central city of Larissa shortly before midnight.
The two trains had been travelling toward each other on the same track for 19 minutes without triggering any alarm system.
The court said the disaster was the fault of state rail infrastructure company OSE and its now-privatised former subsidiary Hellenic Train, ANA reported.
Although the companies knew the automatic safety system was not working, they continued to operate trains "risking the health and lives of both passengers and railway staff", ANA reported the court as saying.
State-run OSE owns, maintains and operates Greece's railway networks.
Privately company Hellenic Train operates intercity passenger and freight trains on OSE tracks.
Formerly known as TrainOSE, it was privatised and sold off in 2017 to Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, when it was renamed Hellenic Train.
