Larissa appellate-level examining magistrate Sotiris Baikamis ordered on Monday an urgent investigation of the three videos handed over to the Tempi train crash investigation by the company responsible for the video surveillance of railway line, on behalf of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE).
The court-appointed fact-finders will examine the authenticity of the videos and analyze them to answer specific questions. The magistrate described the new evidence as “particularly important.”
The videos were handed over in February 5 and sparked a political and public outrage with the crucial questions be: “Why the videos were handed over now” -that is 2 years after the Tempi crash and “Who kept them hidden.”
The videos show the freight train inside the tunnel near Tempi
Ορίστε το βίντεο που παρέδωσε ο Βασίλης Καπερνάρος στον εφέτη ανακριτή.
Διακρίνεται η εμπορική αμαξοστοιχία λίγα λεπτά πριν από την, δυστυχώς, μοιραία σύγκρουση, όταν βγαίνει από τη σήραγγα των Τεμπών.. pic.twitter.com/UAyEnDrpoY— ArisPortosalte (@ArisPortosalte) February 7, 2025
Βίντεο της εμπορικής αμαξοστοιχίας από τη σήραγγα του Πλαταμώνα πριν περάσει τη σήραγγα των Τεμπών. pic.twitter.com/kCLwfpC5pl
— Ομάδα Αλήθειας (@omadaalithias) February 10, 2025
The question to be answered is whether the freight train was illegally carrying flammable liquids that caused the big explosion killing 30 out of the 57 victims in total.
According to media, an employee of security company in charge of the CCTV cameras had the videos on a USB but was not aware of their content.
Investigation
The Larissa magistrate who received and confiscated the three videos on February 5 has already ordered the appointed experts, a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer, to inspect and analyze the three videos handed over by a lawyer representing the surveillance company and to certify that the freight train appearing in them is that involved in the fatal head-on collision with the passenger train at Tempi on February 28, 2023.
They are also asked to check whether the material shows whether the train was carrying a tank or a pallet with a number of drums capable of carrying fluids such as fuel, hydrocarbons or solvents, as some of the litigants and their technical advisors are claiming.
Baikamis requested that the two experts deliver their report as soon as possible, given the great importance of the digital material to the essence of the case, especially to determine whether the train was illegally transporting flammable materials at the time of the accident.
In his order, the magistrate noted that the three videos related to the accident were delivered on February 5 in digital form, stored on a SanDisk USB, by the Athens lawyer Vasileios Kapernaros, who was acting on behalf of the company Inter Star Security Ltd. The company was responsible for the video surveillance of the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line at the time of the accident and up until the present.
The experts are asked to verify that the trains appearing in the videos are in fact those involved in the accident on February 28, 2023, citing all the indications and evidence to that effect, and determine whether there is evidence it was illegally carrying flammable substances.
