Capturing information from these audio recordings is challenging due to the distressing screams of the dying. We had to separate the factual data from the emotion. When a collision occurs, the phone automatically dials 112 within ten seconds and sends geolocation updates every five seconds. This continues until the call is ended or the battery dies. In this case, the calls stopped when the phones were destroyed by fire. Analysis indicates at least three people were alive at the scene after the crash. This was Tembi: They survived the crash but burned while calling for help.
“Marthi, I love you”
The first call is made automatically from an iPhone at 23:19:55. In this call, a woman’s voice can be heard amidst cries of despair and pain, providing vital information about the situation at that time. She clearly states that she cannot breathe and has very little oxygen. Two minutes and fourteen seconds after the automatic call, a young girl is heard coming to the realisation that they may not survive, saying: “We are going to die.” Two seconds later, the most harrowing part of the recording follows, where the girl, feeling the urgency to say something important before the end, says: “Marthi, I love you… can you hear me?… I love you.”
The content of this call is included in the file on the Tembis case but was not used in the investigation. The transcript, as annotated in the report by expert Vassilis Kokotsakis, is provided below:
At 00.29, an Unknown girl:
I can’t breathe.
At 00.51, an Unknown girl:
I feel, I feel.
At 00.57, an Unknown girl:
I have very little oxygen.
Note: This phrase gives us important information about the environment. ∆It indicates that the air she is breathing (as is clear from the fact that she is talking) does not contain enough oxygen, indicating that we have very close combustion, which consumes large quantities of oxygen, a phenomenon that occurs mainly during the combustion of hydrocarbons.
At 01.05 unknown:
I love you too.
At 01.12:
(Another voice is heard further away)
At 01.20 Unknown girl:
You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me.
Note: Possibly an attempt to help, possibly a trampling by people trying to escape.
At 1.23 Unknown girl:
∆Dimitri, do something.
At 01.41 Unknown girl:
My head a little (your head a little).
At 01.54 Unknown girl:
Help help help.
At 02.11:
(Heartbreaking screams can be heard in the background as well as other voices of despair)
Note: We estimate that there are at least two other people. From the increase in dramatic screams, we can assume the intensification of the approaching fire or the dramatic increase in temperature.
At 2.14 Unidentified girl:
We’re going to die.
Note: She probably realizes the dramatic nature of the moment.
At 02.16 by the same unknown girl:
Marti, I love you… can you hear me… I love you.
(followed by silence…)
Note: The call was terminated by the operator following instructions from a colleague. This is a key omission because vital information was lost.
The reference to the name Marti refers to Maria Karystianou’s daughter and the investigator must check whether the young woman who can be heard is Francesca Beza’s friend.
“Help, help, help”
The other call made automatically to 112 is not accompanied by a conversation. As the phone is left open, sounds and screams are transmitted from the carriage and, more importantly, conversations between the service staff who are in a state of panic:
Automated collision detection message (via the calling number’s telephone device) informing 112 that the telephone owner is not responding to his telephone, has been involved in a serious accident and at the same time sending geographic location coordinates.
112 (female):
Has something happened?
(The tracing meme is played)
112:
Can you hear me?
There are moans.
112:
Can you hear me?
(Voices and screams are heard, unintelligible from different persons
A woman’s voice is heard:
“Help help help” and unintelligible
Tracking – geolocation mnemonic
112:
Can you hear me?
(Voices are heard far away from the microphone from the scene of the incident)
112:
Do you hear me?
(There are unintelligible voices and a loud scream)
A woman’s voice is heard:
“Help” & unintelligible.
112:
Stay calm, stay calm. Alert the authorities. Has there been an accident?
Tracking – tracking – tracing message
112:
Can you hear me?
Male voice from the scene:
Please don’t move.
112:
Can you hear me?
Screams and a male voice are heard:
Don’t move, don’t move.
Voice of an employee of another service called by 112:
Hello.
112:
Calm down… Hello. Fire department? Hello, ambulance. We’re waiting for the police to respond. There must have been a car accident at the location I have noted, we have only received a call with coordinates and I can hear voices from inside calling for help.
Duty Officer (female):
Where exactly is it coming out, guys?
112:
At the point I’ve put on the map, it’s between Parapotamos and Makrichori.
Clerk:
Oh good, okay.
Another service employee (male):
Between Parapotamo and Makrichori… How many people?
Female employee:
At what point?
112:
∆I don’t know, it comes out recorded as you hear… Half a minute… Can you hear me?
(Heartbreaking cries are heard)
Woman (probably a police officer):
Call A3. Probably a car accident between Parapotamos and Makrychori. It is reported that there are children crying inside a car… children.
112:
Can you hear me?
Female employee:
I’m listening. EMS.
112:
I’m trying to speak to the cell phone where the call has been placed.
(Heartbreaking cries are heard)
112:
The little kids are screaming. Between Makrychori – Parapotamos. Probably on the road to Gonus. I’ve given you the coordinates that came out in the call.
Man (service employee):
Please.
112:
Do you read me?
Clerk (woman):
It’s on the parallel road going to Gonus – the parallel road.
Clerk (man):
Where exactly?
Clerk (woman):
The way I see it, colleague, on the map it’s on the parallel to Gonus.
Clerk (man):
For Goni where?
The reference to the name Marti in the dialogues between the victims refers to Maria Karystianou’s daughter and the investigator must check whether the young woman heard is the friend of Francesca Beza (right, next to Marti)
112:
From Makrychori – country road.
Clerk (male):
For Goni that is, not Parapotamos?
Clerk (woman):
I can see it’s in a residential area, so you can understand it’s a small provincial road, if you can see it on the map too.
Clerk (male):
Is that definitely the stigma?
Clerk (woman):
That’s what it shows at least. The 112.
112:
Yes, that’s what the call gave, the cell phone call. He keeps repeating it.
Clerk (probably a woman P.S.):
I have a station in Goni, I’m sending it now to start from there, to send a fire brigade.
Clerk (male):
Yes, from Industrial.
Clerk (female):
You inform the Annunciation Traffic Police. Right?
Clerk (male):
The fire department?
Clerk (female):
The Annunciation Traffic Police inform(s) to go now.
112:
We are informing ELAS from the other line, I’m hanging up now, be well bye.
Note: The exchange of the above dialogue between the 112 centre and the various services starts at 02.16 minutes of the recorded message and ends with the termination of the collision detection call at about 03.50, which is the duration of the recorded message. Throughout the duration of these conversations between the officials there is no sound of any kind emitted by the mobile phone because the recording of the officials’ conversations is made over the mobile phone sounds. At times, the recorded coded message shall be heard.
