By Warren Hoge
New York Times New Service

LONDON - Seven people were killed and 83 were injured, including seven critically, Friday when a passenger train traveling at 100 mph jumped the tracks at Potters Bar, a commuter town 10 minutes north of London, and smashed into an elevated station platform.

Witnesses to Friday afternoon's accident said the last of four electric cars derailled, breaking free from the rest of the train. The car sideswiped a bridge near the station and slid sideways toward the platform, coming to a halt after it demolished a waiting room and became wedged beneath the platform roof.

(New York Times News Service, May 11 2002)