Tempi train crash trial hears family claims of fear and calls for phone record review

The courtroom in the Tempi train crash case heard the father of assistant driver Nikolaos Nalbantis speak about his son’s anxiety over railway work after completing theoretical training and beginning routes as a trainee. He described a “climate of terror” that discourages drivers from raising safety concerns. The godfather added that a senior former Hellenic Train employee in Larissa reported hearing Nalbantis try to contact the stationmaster, but the employee refused to testify.

Their counsel has asked for a forensic check of Nalbantis’s official mobile phone to determine whether any calls to the stationmaster or others went unanswered before the collision. Police had returned the phone to the driver’s fiancée a few days after the disaster. The family also petitioned for Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who made public remarks after the crash, and Dimitris Markopoulos, chair of the railway accident examination committee, to be summoned as witnesses. Meanwhile, the mother of victim Marthe Sarpoulou, Maria Karystianou, is currently providing her testimony.