MEC&F Expert Engineers : 03/17/15

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

2 YOUNG GIRLS DIE IN FIERY CRASH ON OSWICHEE ROAD IN RUSSELL COUNTY, ALABAMA; 2 INJURED




MARCH 17, 2015

RUSSELL COUNTY, ALABAMA

Two young girls died Tuesday afternoon after the vehicle they were riding in went out of control, burst into flames and crashed into a tree off of Oswichee Road in Russell County.

The identities of the victims were not released but they were pronounced dead at the scene at 6:13 p.m., said Russell County Coroner Arthur Sumbry Jr. The bodies will be transported to the Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery Wednesday for positive identification and an autopsy. No ages were available on neither of the victims.

Sumbry said there were four occupants in the vehicle when it went out control on the two-lane road also known as Highway 18, which goes from Seale in the west to the Fort Mitchell area in the east.

Sumbry said both girls sustained some burns in the fire and one was trapped inside the vehicle before she was freed.

Two other occupants were transported to the hospital in the Columbus area for treatment.

The accident remains under investigation by Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Source: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com

TRESPASSING TEEN’S FOOT GET STUCK IN THE RAIL TRACKS AND IS KILLED BY ONCOMING TRAIN IN TILTON, ILLINOIS






MARCH 17, 2015

TILTON, ILLINOIS

An autopsy will be conducted Wednesday on a traspassing 15-year-old boy who was killed when he was hit by a train late Tuesday afternoon in Tilton.

Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson said that Shawn C. Morris of Tilton was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:25 p.m.

Johnson said the boy was on the Norfolk and Southern railway tracks on the north side of the 14th Street overpass in Tilton when he was hit and killed by a train sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Tilton Police Chief Steve Cornett said three boys were on the north side of the tracks walking south and they wanted to cross the tracks.  Two of them held back and tried to talk the victim out of crossing, he said.

Cornett said that Mr. Morris’ foot got caught on the rail, and, when he got back up, he was hit by the train.

The incident is being investigated by Johnson’s office and the Tilton Police Department.

This appears to be a tragic accident, but it should have never happened if these kids were tought not to trespass on railroad property.  While railroad tracks have long held a cultural resonance with Americans, featured in motion pictures, TV shows, music videos and photography, they are private property.  And they can be a deadly place. In 2013, 476 people were killed and 432 were injured in trespassing accidents, according to preliminary data from the Federal Railroad Administration. 

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NTSB TO HOLD FORUM ON THE DANGERS OF RAILROAD TRESPASSING
MARCH 11, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a public forum March 24-25 on the dangers of trespassing on the railroad right-of-way.

While railroad tracks have long held a cultural resonance with Americans, featured in motion pictures, TV shows, music videos and photography, they are private property.  And they can be a deadly place. In 2013, 476 people were killed and 432 were injured in trespassing accidents, according to preliminary data from the Federal Railroad Administration.

The forum, Trains and Trespassing: Ending Tragic Encounters, will be chaired by NTSB Board Member Robert L. Sumwalt. It will feature speakers who have been seriously injured by trains; those whose communities have been affected; and railroad employee assistance program employees whose train crews have struck people on railroad property. The forum will draw on the expertise of railroads, regulators, and researchers, among others, to review the diversity of trespassing accidents and incidents and look at current and future prevention strategies.


The forum will be held at the NTSB's Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. However, on March 25, the forum will include a tour of Norfolk Southern’s safety train at Union Station.
More information about the forum can be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/trespassing
The public can view the forum in person or by live webcast on the NTSB's website. As soon as they are available, an agenda and webcast details will be posted.

SAN DIEGO SUES MONSANTO FOR BAY POLLUTION & PERSISTENT CONTAMINATION




MARCH 17, 2015

Agrochemical giant Monsanto has been sued by the City of San Diego and the San Diego Unified Port District for selling chemicals the multinational knew were harmful to the ecology, including that of the now heavily polluted San Diego Bay.

According to the San Diego Reader, city agencies filed suit on Monday, alleging Monsanto hid its knowledge of the toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 

Despite being aware of these facts, the company peddled its chemical compounds for industrial use, including shipbuilding, electrical component manufacture, food packaging and paint plasticizers. 

The city and port were previously held responsible by the San Diego Regional Water Control Board for the bay’s pollution, resulting in fines of $949,634. The city set aside $6.45 million to improve the Shipyards Sediment Site, the most notoriously polluted section of the bay. City and port authorities have already sued shipbuilding companies BAE and NASSCO, and are now going for Monsanto. 

"PCBs manufactured by Monsanto have been found in Bay sediments and water and have been identified in tissues of fish, lobsters, and other marine life in the Bay,” the city said in the lawsuit. “PCB contamination in and around the Bay affects all San Diegans and visitors who enjoy the Bay, who reasonably would be disturbed by the presence of a hazardous, banned substance in the sediment, water, and wildlife. 

"PCBs were not only a substantial factor in causing the City and Port District to incur damages, but a primary driving force behind the need to clean up and abate Bay sediments. In addition, fish consumption warnings are posted at locations in and around Bay tidelands warning the public that fish within the Bay may contain contaminants and directing consumption limitations." 

Monsanto was the practically the only PCB producer in North America, marketing the products under the name Aroclor from 1930 to 1977, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The lawsuit claimed Monsanto had known about the risks of inhaling or ingesting PCBs since the 1930s. 

A report from 1969, the suit noted, showed that a Monsanto committee discussed ways to continue propagating the organic pollutants, which have been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, among others. 

"There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds,” the internal Monsanto report said. 

"Secondly, the committee believes that there is no practical course of action that can so effectively police the uses of these products as to prevent environmental contamination. There are, however a number of actions which must be undertaken to prolong the manufacture, sale and use of these particular Aroclors as well as to protect the continued use of other members of the Aroclor series." 

Through the suit, the city and port want to recoup costs of removing PCBs from the bay and for loss of natural resources. 

PCBs have been banned in the United States since 1979. 

Much of Monsanto’s PCB production occurred in plants based in Anniston, Alabama and Sauget, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
In 2013, a Missouri appeals court ruled that a lawsuit -- alleging PCBs produced by Monsanto caused cancer -- could move forward in a reversal of a lower court’s decision. 

The case, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs, is monumental given the plaintiffs alleged “general population” -- and not occupational -- exposure.
 “The case represents the first time that injured victims have sought to hold a company accountable for producing a chemical that has contaminated the entire planet, including every person in the United States,” wrote Allen Stewart, P.C., a Dallas law firm that handles lymphoma claims. 

“The plaintiffs are three lymphoma patients who each have elevated levels of PCBs in their blood. The original Monsanto Co. (now known as “Pharmacia Corp.”) produced more than 99% of all of the PCBs ever used in the United States. Because PCBs are far more persistent in the environment than most other chemicals, PCBs are now a ubiquitous environmental contaminant. Today, PCBs can be found in measurable levels in virtually any sample of soil or air, and also in the food chain. PCBs contaminate fish, dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, and eggs.”
Source:rt.com

CONSTRUCTION WORKER FALLS 11 FEET TO HIS DEATH IN DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS




MARCH 17, 2015

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

A construction steel worker is dead after falling at an industrial site in downtown Little Rock.

According to a police report, Erik Rivera Pontilla, 29, of North Little Rock, was working approximately 11 feet in the air on a beam placing bolts into steel at 301 Main Street, at the corner of 3rd and Main.  At some point, Pontilla lost his footing and fell and struck his head on the concrete slab below.


Pontilla was transported to UAMS, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. 

No one was present when Pontilla fell.   Workers say they heard a "thud" and found the victim on the ground.  

Police are calling the incident an accident and say foul play is not suspected. 


Pontilla worked for Kinco Constructors, LLC, based in Little Rock, company vice president Keith Jacks said.


The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently conducting an investigation into the worker's death, Jacks said.

Jacks said the construction crew would likely finish work today, but that operations at the site would be suspended tomorrow.

Kinco Constructors plans to release a statement about the worker's death after the OSHA investigation is completed later today, Jacks said. 

The construction company, based in Little Rock, has been building a commercial office space at the site on the corner of Main and Third streets.

Source: http://m.arkansasonline.com