The World - News from Aug. 5, 1985

A railway stationmaster admitted that he mistakenly ordered a passenger train onto a track occupied by another, causing a fiery head-on collision near Flaujac in south-central France on Saturday that killed at least 34 and injured about 100 others, officials said. “I am done for--this is a catastrophe!” witnesses in the train station quoted stationmaster Yves Saliens, 37, as shouting when he allegedly realized his error. Railway officials said Saliens admitted that he confused train schedules and thought that a southbound express train from Paris with vacationers aboard already had passed the town of Assier on a single track when he ordered a northbound train onto the same track.