Driver killed in train crash
Police charged three employees at the Menidi train station in western Athens with negligence yesterday after a train carrying 138 passengers derailed late Wednesday, killing the driver and injuring 12 others. The passenger train traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki crashed into a cargo train at about 11.15 p. m., authorities said, knocking its engine and first two carriages off the tracks. The driver, 46-year-old Constantinos Fantopoulos, was dead when he was pulled out of the wreckage about two hours after the collision. His assistant, Pavlos Bozios, was seriously hurt. Three employees on duty at the Menidi station during the accident were suspended by the Hellenic Railways Organization after being charged with negligence. It was Greece’s second train accident in the past month. Two people were killed and 18 were injured on February 16 when a train hit a truck near the northern city of Serres.
