For a new public safety culture

There is a common thread linking February's deadly train crash at Tempe, July's devastating wildfire on the island of Rhodes, the explosion at an ammunitions dump in Nea Anchialos that same month and the more recent events in the Athens suburb Nea Filadelfia, and that is the complete absence of a public safety culture.

In the case of Tempe, the telecommand system was out of operation and no one in charge thought to ask what would happen if two trains ended up on the same track heading toward each other. On Rhodes, no one had bothered with fire buffers or some sort of early spotting system, while the local civil protection bodies were underperforming. In Nea Anchialos, an internal inquiry found a completely inadequate fire safety system at the military base where the Air Force stored ammunition. And in Nea Filadelfia, the Hellenic Police either ignored or underestimated the...