Inspired by the Tempi Train Disaster — Greece, February 28, 2023

350 people on a passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki. Mostly students returning home after Clean Monday. A freight train on the same track. A head on collision. A fireball. 57 dead.

The government called it human error. The station master was a political appointee with months of training. Greece had the deadliest railway network in Europe before the crash even happened. A EU funded safety system had been contracted since 2014 and was years behind schedule. The evidence was removed from the crash site. The debris disposed of. The investigation obstructed. 23 suspects charged including 18 public officials. No politicians tried.

"I have no oxygen."

Those four words became the slogan of hundreds of thousands of people across Greece who took to the streets on every anniversary demanding accountability that never came. Two years later the trial finally opened. The politicians were absent. They always are.

This is not an accident. This is a country that knew its railways were killing people, was given the money to fix them, chose not to, and then watched 57 people burn and called it human error.