A Greek government report into the country’s deadliest rail accident — the Tempi train disaster — has come under intense scrutiny after two European universities denied involvement in its findings, and the head of the Greek Aviation, Railway Accidents & Transportation Safety Investigation Agency’s (HARSIA) admitted that he was under pressure to include the possible causes of the “fireball” in the report.
The controversy triggered a fierce criticism of opposition parties against the government.
The accident occurred on February 28, 2023, when a passenger train carrying over 350 people collided head-on with a freight train near Tempi, in central Greece. The crash killed 57 people, many of them university students, and triggered national outrage over longstanding safety failures in the country’s rail network.
The report in question was produced by Greece’s official agency for investigating accidents in railway and urban mass transport systems (EODASAAM/HARSIA). Intended to shed light on the causes of the disaster — including the massive fireball that erupted following the collision — the report claimed to incorporate expert input from several European research institutions.
But both Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of Pisa (Italy) have publicly denied providing formal support. Ghent researcher Georgios Marangos told Greek fact-checking site Ellinika Hoaxes that the university had “never been asked to investigate the causes of the fireball” which led to the death of around 30 persons on the train after the collision, and only provided informal comments on preliminary simulations sent by a Greek expert. Ghent also stated it disagreed with the report’s findings and objected to how its name was included.
Similarly, the University of Pisa sent a letter to EODASAAM requesting that all references to the institution be removed. “We did not sign any agreement,” the letter reads, emphasizing that the report was “neither reviewed nor approved” by the university, daily to vima.gr reported.
The revelations raise serious questions about the credibility and transparency of the official investigation. They come as a parliamentary committee prepares to conclude its inquiry into the disaster and potentially refer a former Deputy Minister of the incumbent political party, Christos Triantopoulos, to judicial authorities.
With Greek society still reeling from the tragedy, the integrity of the investigative process remains a matter of public trust — and national accountability, daily tovima.gr noted on Monday.
Also on Monday, the Supreme Court Prosecutor ordered the Athens First-Instance Court Prosecutors’ Department to conduct an urgent inquiry “into the conditions under which HARSIA report on the Tempi rail crash, announced on February 27, 2025, included the conclusion which considered (citing the assistance of the universities of Ghent and Pisa) an unknown flammable liquid of at least 2.5 tonnes….as a possible cause of the fireball created immediately after the collision of the two trains.”
This quantity of unknown flammable liquid was alleged to be carried by the freight train and to not be connected to either the engines of the two trains nor included in their bill of lading, the prosecutor pointed out.
“The above investigation is judged essential to determine whether prosecutable criminal offenses have been committed, such as attempting to unlawfully influence judicial officials, after representatives of the Universities of Ghent and Pisa refute the conclusions attributed to them in the report,” the prosecutor added.
It also calls for an investigation into the role played by the Independent Family Experts Investigation Committee and the technical advisor of the families of the Tempi accident victims, Kostas Lakafosis, in the way the above conclusion was worded.
PS Had the Tempi train disaster investigation taken place properly, without the destruction of evidence, the covering of the accident site with cement, the quick removal of wreck and bodies as well as the deliberate destruction of blood and tissue samples from the 57 bodies we could have known by now, more than two years after the disaster, much more.
No wonder that the confused victims’ families and the public opinion are convinced that the government tried and still tries to cover up.