SIDELINES : Kin of Soccer Victims Can Sue

Close family members who watched on television as relatives died in the crush of a soccer crowd a year ago can claim damages for mental injury, a British judge said today.

Justice Anthony Hidden limited eligibility to spouses, parents and siblings of the fans who were killed or injured in the disaster at Hillsborough Stadium in April, 1989.

The crush in a standing room area at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium left 95 people dead and hundreds injured in an FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Hidden ruled that those watching the events unfold on TV were just as liable to suffer severe mental anguish, or “psychiatric injury” as British law describes it, as those who were in the stadium and could do nothing to stop the fatalities.