Tempi rail trial hears request to inspect driver phone and summon ministers

Examination of driver communication records

The 32nd session of the Tempi rail disaster trial convened at the Larissa Three-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies at the Gaiopolis complex on 22 September 2026. Proceedings opened with testimony from the family of Nikolaos Nalbantis, the assistant driver of the passenger train involved in the collision. Through their legal counsel, Othonas Papadopoulos, the family submitted a formal motion requesting a technical examination of Nalbantis's official corporate mobile phone. The defense seeks to establish whether unanswered outgoing calls were made from the device to the station master or other railway personnel between 23:00 and 23:30 on 28 February 2023, the period directly preceding the crash. The assistant driver's godfather testified that police had returned the corporate device to Nalbantis's fiancée several days after the incident, while his personal phone remained missing, leaving only his watch, driving licence, and phone case recovered from the police station.

Testimonies allege safety concerns and workplace pressure

Family members detailed warnings that Nalbantis had voiced in the weeks before the disaster. The victim had held his driver's licence for less than three months following the completion of his theoretical instruction. According to testimony presented by his godfather and uncle, Panagiotis Verzamanis, Nalbantis observed wide discrepancies between his formal training and actual operating conditions on the network.

“There was a complete discrepancy between what he was taught and reality. He spoke to us with concern about the situation on the railway. He told us, 'I will see it coming from opposite and I will jump. Something big will happen and they will try to blame the train drivers.'”

Verzamanis stated that railway employees operated under a climate of intimidation that discouraged them from reporting safety failures. He also testified that a Hellenic Train instructor based in Larissa, identified as Pantelis Evgenidis, claimed to have heard the passenger train driver attempting to contact the station master via CB radio without receiving a response, though the employee later avoided giving formal testimony to the appellate investigating magistrate.

Petitions for government and parliamentary witnesses

The legal team representing the Nalbantis family also lodged procedural requests to summon prominent political figures to testify before the court. The petition requests testimony from Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis regarding his public statements made shortly after the 2023 collision. During a televised interview, Georgiadis had stated that if the former transport minister, Kostas Karamanlis, had acknowledged safety issues, no citizen would have boarded a train. Additionally, the motion seeks the appearance of Dimitris Markopoulos, who served as the chairman of the parliamentary investigative committee established to examine the disaster.

Additional testimonies on the crash site

The court heard further testimony from Maria Karystianou, the mother of victim Martha Psaropoulou. Karystianou addressed the large fireball generated at the moment of impact and raised concerns regarding the subsequent alteration of the crash site during early recovery operations. Relatives of the victims reiterated their dissatisfaction with official handling, citing statements by railway leadership concerning automated control systems, including European Train Control System infrastructure that was reported as functional yet remained inactive at the time of the collision.