OSE Workers on Tempi Train Derailment: No Illegal Cargo Found

The employees at the freight station inspected the wagons of the ill-fated commercial train in Tempi and confirmed that there was no illegal cargo, according to Nicos Tsikalakis, the General Secretary of the OSE Workers’ Union, who spoke to the ONE television station. ‘Our colleagues that night checked the wagons and found nothing illegal, nothing beyond the documented cargo. The documentation stated: wooden pallets, shavings, and containers,’ Tsikalakis said regarding the tragic night of the Tempi derailment. Regarding reports of 2.5 tons of fuel oil in the locomotive’s cockpit, Tsikalakis stated: ‘It is such a space that seems inconceivable, improbable… Because the cockpit space is very small; it is impossible for 2.5 tons to fit inside, not even one ton fits in there.’ Additionally, the union leader mentioned that there had never been a protocol for managing a railway accident until responsibility was transferred to EOEDASAM. ‘Today responsibilities have been defined and EOEDASAM now holds this responsibility. Before EOEDASAM, there was no protocol.’ In another point, Tsikalakis noted that in the past, there had been no sanctification of the site of any railway accident, referring to the most recent prior incident in Adendro in 2017, where four people were killed.