Asproneri trucker is remanded
The driver of the truck that hit a coach full of schoolchildren on a highway in central Greece last Monday, killing seven teenagers, was remanded in custody early on Saturday after testifying before a Lamia investigating magistrate. The bus driver and one of the truck’s owners, who have also been charged in connection with the fatal accident at Asproneri, some 35 kms southeast of Lamia, were released on bail of 5,000 and 15,000 euros, respectively. Antonis Pardalakis, 60, who had been carrying a load of glass panels from Crete to Thessaloniki, was reportedly driving at nearly twice the 50-kilometer speed limit on a notoriously dangerous stretch of the Athens-to-Thessaloniki highway. He lost control on a bend and hit a coach carrying high school pupils from the village of Farkadona, near Trikala, on an excursion to Athens for the Paralympic Games. All three suspects have been charged with «breaching the safety of transport with possible malice aforethought, resulting in deaths,» a criminal offense, as well as multiple manslaughter and bodily harm, both misdemeanors.
