- Report to the Supreme Court on delays in the prosecutor’s investigation
- The Livadia Prosecutor’s Office has been conducting a preliminary investigation since January 2022.
- The judiciary’s stance is striking in the case of an accident whose “timely investigation and analysis could potentially have helped prevent the Tempi tragedy.”
By Vangelis Triantis & Aris Chatzigeorgiou
Serious delays in the judicial investigation and the fragmentation of the case files have been reported regarding the railway accident that occurred in Livadia in January 2022.
In this unprecedented incident, an OSE locomotive crashed into the rear of a passenger train carrying 190 passengers. The train was stranded for hours in front of the Livadia station, and 12 passengers were injured.
As revealed by Data Journalists, the prosecutorial investigation into the accident at the Livadia Court of First Instance has been dragging on for three years. This is despite the fact that the accident was one of the most alarming warnings of the impending rail disaster that would finally unfold in Tempi on February 28, 2023.
According to Data Journalists, the law firm Daliani – Ladis, which represents nine of the passengers, recently submitted a request to the Supreme Court, urging the speedy completion of the investigation. The case has been in the preliminary investigation phase since January 2022.
The attitude of the judiciary towards this accident is striking. As stated in the legal report, “a timely investigation and proper analysis of the incident could potentially have prevented the Tempi tragedy”. Let’s start at the beginning.
The timeline of the collision in extreme weather conditions
On January 24, 2022, the Intercity passenger train IC-54 left Athens at 12:22 pm with a total of 190 passengers bound for Thessaloniki. The weather forecast for that day was ominous.
In the days leading up to the trip, meteorological reports had warned of a severe weather front that was expected to sweep across the country. Those predictions came true – heavy snowfall blanketed Greece from coast to coast, even reaching the center of Athens.
The train began its scheduled journey, arriving at Livadia station about an hour and a half later. But after some passengers got off, the train stopped. For several hours, the passengers were trapped inside the train in unprecedented conditions. At 14:15, just 30 minutes after the train stopped, the power supply was cut.
As a result, the heating system shut down, leaving passengers in the freezing cold with no light or heat as temperatures continued to drop due to the extreme weather. Around 6:00 p.m., power was finally restored and the train resumed its journey – but not for long. Just 1.5 kilometers away, it stopped again.
Then, at 7:30 p.m., the train crew informed passengers that a second OSE locomotive was on its way to tow the stranded train. In fact, the locomotive arrived just 15 minutes later. But as it approached, it collided with the rear of the passenger train. Panic ensued. Some passengers were thrown to the ground, others were injured, and screams of terror filled the train.
The impact caused considerable damage to the train. According to passenger testimony, “metal parts and pieces of the ceiling came loose, creating a serious risk of serious injury. The situation was dire. Stranded for hours, passengers had no electricity, no heat and no way to contact their families. They were also deprived of basic necessities – no one had arranged for food or water.
Finally, the train was towed to Davleia station, where firefighters and emergency medical teams (EKAB) arrived to provide first aid and transport the injured to hospitals. Shortly after 23:00, the train was towed to Lianokladi station, where it arrived at 12:30. From there the passengers were finally evacuated and transported by bus to hotels in Lamia.
The criminal complaint filed on January 31, 2022
A few days after the incident, nine passengers of the ill-fated train, represented by Ladis – Daliani Law Firm, filed a criminal complaint with the Livadia Court of First Instance. The complaint was filed against all those responsible for “dangerous interference with rail, sea and air transport, endangerment, negligent causing of bodily harm by a driver of a vehicle or a person obliged by duty or profession to exercise special care, obstruction of public safety measures, failure to provide assistance and serious disruption of public transport services, in particular rail transport”.
As a result, a preliminary investigation was ordered to determine possible criminal liability.
At the same time, the Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS) launched an independent investigation into the events of that day.
After months of investigation, the RAS issued two decisions, the first on December 16, 2022, and the second on May 11, 2023.
Both decisions imposed severe sanctions on Hellenic Train S.A. and OSE S.A. for multiple safety violations. Specifically, both companies were found to have serious violations of the Railway Safety Management System (SMS), resulting in fines totaling €100,000.
The investigation has been in limbo for three years
Three years later, the case remains under investigation by the Livadia Court of First Instance, with no tangible results to date. This prolonged inaction has sparked outrage among passengers, who question why the preliminary investigation is taking so long.
On March 21, the Daliani – Ladis law firm submitted a formal report to the Supreme Court, requesting “the expedition of the file on the Livadia accident”. According to Data Journalists, the report emphasizes that “the investigation of this case has inexplicably stagnated at the preliminary investigation stage”, “despite the existence of extensive rulings by the Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS) and the accompanying investigative material, which clearly demonstrate a series of liabilities, some of which even rise to the level of crimes”.
It is truly remarkable how the justice system has handled this accident – an incident whose “timely investigation and analysis could potentially have prevented the Tempi tragedy,” as noted in the report, according to the same sources. All of this comes at a time when the credibility of the judiciary has already been damaged by the allegations made by the families of the victims of the Tempi disaster regarding the progress of the investigation and the actions of the Special Appeals Investigator, Sotiris Bakaimis.
“Fragmentation” of case files instead of consolidation
At the same time, the report to the Supreme Court highlights another issue. In addition to the case pending at the Livadia Court of First Instance, it appears that two other cases have been opened regarding the same incident – one at the Thebes Court of First Instance and another at the Livadia Court of First Instance, specifically regarding the offense of assault. The latter case has already reached the courtroom and is being handled by the single-member misdemeanor court in Livadia. The trial was originally scheduled for September 17, 2024, but was postponed to March 18, 2025, due to the unavailability of Hellenic Train’s legal counsel, without prior notice to the legal representatives of the prosecution witnesses, as noted in the report. However, the trial did not take place on March 18 either. This time it was postponed due to the illness of one of the defendants and has now been rescheduled for September 16, 2025.
The question raised by the administrators of the Daliani – Ladis law firm before the Supreme Court is why separate case files were created instead of merging them into one.
As they mention, according to information from Data Journalists, “this incomprehensible fragmentation of the case file has multiple negative consequences for the investigation of the truth: on the one hand, it distracts attention from the criminal responsibilities in the main case file, and on the other hand, it increases the costs and the suffering of the victims, who now have to attend two criminal proceedings, with the delays that this entails, without even being reimbursed for their travel expenses, as they were explicitly informed by the Livadia Court of First Instance when they submitted the relevant requests”.
The “explosive” minutes of the RAS and the revelation by Data Journalists
On March 12, 2023, Greece had already been reeling for nearly two weeks from the images of Tempi and the first leaks of audio recordings that were later revealed to be doctored, but few suspected the cover-up that had already taken place at the “scene of the crime” and the concealment that would dominate. That same day, Data Journalists revealed the full transcript of a hearing organized by the Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS) regarding another rail accident that had occurred during the great snowstorm of 2022.
Twelve passengers were injured on the night of January 24, 2022, when a locomotive sent to assist a stranded train outside Livadia collided with it at high speed. The violent crash was the culmination of an unimaginable railroad fiasco that left 800 people trapped in immobilized trains for endless hours. It was one of the loudest warning bells of the disaster that would befall the railway system – and society as a whole – on February 28, 2023, yet it failed to elicit any response from the Mitsotakis government.
Data Journalists published the transcripts of the hearing on the accident organized by the Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS), revealing chilling testimony of “approximate” compliance with safety regulations, severe staff shortages, confusion of roles, shifting of responsibility, and troubling links between the parties involved and political power. Notably, the legal advisor to the audited company, Hellenic Train, also served as an advisor to Kostas Achilleas Karamanlis at the supervising Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
Αποκάλυψη – ντοκουμέντο για τη σύγκρουση των τρένων τον Ιανουάριο του 2022
The report also emphasizes that RAS had to assume the investigative role because there was no independent body for accident investigation at the time. The National Body for Railway Accident and Incident Investigation (EODASAAM) was later legislated, but had not yet been established when the Tempi disaster occurred. EODASAAM was able to publish its findings two years later, although the report was riddled with “gaps” and speculation, largely due to the loss of critical evidence during the hasty cleanup.
