World Notes FRANCE

Near the end of the evening rush hour, the engineer of commuter train No. 153951 peered down the tracks of Paris' Gare de Lyon and screamed in horror: another train was bearing down on him at high speed. Seconds later, the runaway train rammed 153951 at more than 50 m.p.h., turning it into a maze of shredded steel. The collision last week was the worst rail accident in Paris history and one of the worst ever in France. The toll: 56 dead and 13 seriously injured.

The runaway train had had an uneventful trip along the 35-mile commuter line from Melun to Paris until the brakes failed just outside the Gare de Lyon, a major commuter hub. Firemen, doctors and paramedics worked for 20 hours to save the injured and retrieve the dead. "I tried to lift someone up by the shoulders," said a young fireman. "His torso came off in my arms." Said Mayor Jacques Chirac after visiting the scene: "It is incomprehensible."