DISTRACTED DRIVING LED TO CATTLE TRUCK CRASH IN OKLAHOMA; DOZENS COWS KILLED OR INJURED

 JUNE 11, 2015

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, OKLA.

A cattle truck overturned on I-40 Thursday morning in Pottawatomie County. 120 head of cattle are loose on the interstate.

Troopers said at least two semi-trucks were involved.  Westbound lanes are expected to be closed for hours while authorities continue herding cattle and remove the damaged vehicles.

According to troopers, distracted driving led to the crash.

Since the initial crash several other vehicles have gotten into accidents, many of them hit cows on the interstate.

Troopers say cows have been reported up to five miles east and west of the accident scene.

A second semi-truck crashed nearby getting onto the highway. That truck has spilled what appears to be a load of ice cream all over the road. The driver of that vehicle was taken to an area hospital.

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Parts of major highways in Tulsa and near Oklahoma City were temporarily closed on Thursday morning after trucks carrying cattle crashed and tipped over in separate incidents, spilling scores of livestock on the roadways.

In Tulsa, a rig carrying 106 head of cattle tipped over, while in the Oklahoma City-area county of Pottawatomie, about 100 miles to the southwest of Tulsa, a semi-truck carrying 120 head of cattle overturned, according to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Many cattle escaped in both incidents and were seen grazing along the side of roads, causing traffic jams stretching for miles after authorities shut the roadways to round them up. Others remained trapped in the truck trailers. 

In the Oklahoma City-area accident, a professional cattle wrangling team was called in to gather up the livestock, the Daily Oklahoman quoted a highway patrolman as saying.

Source: http://www.koco.com

Suicide Rates Among Female Vets 'Obscenely High'. The Male Vets Murder Rates are Also Through the Roof

  Thursday, 11 Jun 2015 01:43 PM

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The suicide rate of female military veterans is nearly six times the rate of other women, new government research shows.  The murder rate of male vets are also through the roof, as these trained killers are turning their guns onto the U.S. citizens upon their return from wars and other deployments.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the suicide rate is so high that one expert described it as "staggering."   The murder rate of the male vets is the highest ever, attesting the fact that we have a serious problem with the release of these killers into our society.

"We have to come to grips with why the rates are so obscenely high," Dr. Matthew Miller, an epidemiologist and suicide expert at Northeastern University, told the Times.

To date, most research on suicide in the military was focused on men who account for more than 90 percent of the country's 22 million former troops.

The rates of female suicide are highest among young veterans, according to research by the Veterans Affairs Department which covered 11 years of data. Specifically, for women ages 18 to 29, veterans kill themselves at nearly 12 times the rate of nonveterans.

For every other age group, veteran rates of suicide are between four and eight times higher than nonveterans.

The Times said it is unclear what is driving the rates, but researchers and experts who reviewed the data said there could be multiple reasons, for example, that the military disproportionately draws women at higher suicide risk.

Sexual assault or other traumas experienced while in service could also be a cause. The Pentagon has estimated that 10 percent of women in the military have been raped while serving, and another 13 percent experienced unwanted sexual contact.

"We've been missing something that now we can see," Michael Schoenbaum, an epidemiologist and military suicide research at the National Institute of Mental Health, told the Times.

Unlike 34 percent of nonveteran women who commit suicide, female veterans have a 40 percent rate of committing suicide using a gun.

Researchers also looked at the backgrounds of women who join the military. One expert pointed out that men and women who join the military are more likely to have endured difficult childhoods, including emotional and sexual abuse.  In other words, people who joint the military, the police, etc. come from white trash and black trash families. 

Other studies have found that, before enlistment, Army personnel have elevated rates of suicidal thinking, attempts, and various mental health problems, the Times said.  This is not surprising at all.  These people not only have come from disturbing family backgrounds, but they are turned into lethal killers during training;  they then become even worse when they go to the war zones.  Then, they return back to the U.S. and they trun their guns onto the population, committing thousands of killings every year.

Construction worker killed by dump truck at Holyoke, Mass. road work site

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

 

HOLYOKE, Mass.

State police say a construction worker has been struck and killed by a dump truck in work zone on Interstate 91 in Holyoke.

State police say on Twitter that the worker was struck Wednesday morning in a work zone on the northbound side of the highway near Exit 15, which is near the Holyoke Mall.

Two travel lanes were closed for a while during the investigation but have since reopened.

The worker's name was not immediately disclosed.

No other information was available.

Ford, KCI, Inc. construction company cited in KC worker’s crushing eath

JUNE 11, 2015

CLAYCOMO, Mo. (AP)

A federal agency has cited Ford Motor Co. and a Kansas City company for violations after the death of a 52-year-old contractor crushed by a piece of equipment at the automaker’s Kansas City assembly plant.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday the December 2014 accident was preventable. The accident occurred when a 7,600-pound piece of equipment broke loose and hit the worker.

OSHA said Thursday it cited Ford for a serious violation and Kansas City-based KCI Inc. for a willful safety violation. The worker killed was employed by KCI, which OSHA says was rebuilding the assembly line.

OSHA proposed fines of $7,000 for Ford, and $70,000 for KCI.

Ford said in a statement the automaker “fully cooperated” in the investigation. 

KCI didn’t respond to a request for comment.

1 worker has killed and another was injured in a construction accident in Somerville, Mass.when a temp elevator crushed the workers.

 JUNE 11, 2015

SOMERVILLE, MASS. (CBS)

One worker has died and another was injured in a construction accident in Somerville Thursday afternoon. 

The workers were installing a temporary elevator on the exterior of a Partners HealthCare building under construction at Assembly Row. The elevator somehow broke away from the building and crashed to the ground. 

Two workers were seriously hurt in a construction accident in Somerville (WBZ-TV))

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the two workers who were involved in today’s accident,” said Kim Steimle Vaughan, a spokeswoman for the contractor, Suffolk Construction. “This afternoon, during the assembly of external hoists on the building, a hoist cab unexpectedly pulled away and two workers were injured, one fatally.” 

One of the men was an iron-worker, the other worked for a company installing the elevator. They have not been identified.

Two workers were seriously injured in a construction accident in Somerville (WBZ-TV)

Vaughn says the proper safety protocol was being followed at the time of the accident, but it is under investigation. “We are working closely with OSHA and are investigating the cause of this incident,” she said. 

All work was halted at the site after the accident.

Oil companies pay into compensation fund for deadly Quebec oil train crash and subsequent explosions, fires and burning of 47 people alive.

06/11/15 08:35 AM EDT
 

Oil companies have contributed tens of millions of dollars toward a fund to compensate victims of a major 2013 oil train disaster in Quebec, Canada, that killed 47.

Companies like Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Marathon Oil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co. and Irving Oil Ltd. have paid into the $345 million fund, though they deny responsibility for the events on the train transporting their products, The Wall Street Journal reports.

If courts in the United States and Canada approve the oil companies’ role in the fund, the companies will be shielded from liability for any negligence they had involving the disaster in Lac-Megantic, including for failing to test the oil’s vulnerability.

 The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., which ran the train that derailed and exploded, filed for bankruptcy shortly after the incident.

But its court-appointed trustee said the oil companies knew that the oil was volatile and dangerous.

The oil companies have responded that their responsibility ended when they extracted the oil.

Most of the companies that contributed to the fund declined to comment to The Wall Street Journal. Marathon Oil told the newspaper that its contribution is not an acknowledgment of liability.

The Quebec disaster led officials in both Canada and the United States to pay new attention to the use of oil trains, which has increased dramatically in recent years along with oil production in places like the Bakken shale region.

It has resulted in rules in both countries that will ban the use of the oldest tank cars for oil in the coming years, as well as speed restrictions and other operational regulations.

Some Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), have pushed for regulations limiting oil volatility in rail transport.

Federal Railroad Administration: Most railroads will miss automated train deadline

 

Getty Images

By Keith Laing - 06/10/15 03:05 PM EDT

 

The Obama administration warned lawmakers on Wednesday that most of the nation’s railways will fail to meet a deadline for implementing an automated train control system that investigators have said would have prevented last month’s deadly Amtrak crash. 

Railroads currently have until December to install Positive Train Control (PTC) - which regulates the speed and track movements of trains - under a law passed in the aftermath of a 2008 commuter rail crash in California.  

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) told lawmakers in a Senate hearing on Wednesday that was called in the wake of the more recent Amtrak crash that most of the nation’s railroad companies will not make the deadline, however. 

 “For more than three years, FRA has been sounding the alarm that most railroads have not made sufficient progress to meet the December 2015 deadline,” associate administrator for railroad safety Robert Lauby told members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 
“We have noted that the certification and installation of PTC systems are significant undertakings,” he continued. 
The crash of Amtrak train 188 last month has renewed debate about the merits of the December deadline for the implementation. Prior to the crash near Philadelphia last month, lawmakers had sought to push back the deadline to 2020 at the behest of railroad companies. 

Safety groups have criticized the effort to roll back the deadline, citing reports that the derailed train was traveling 106 miles per hour as it approached a curved section of track. 

“Early forerunners of PTC have been in existence since the 1920's,” National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairwoman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr told the panel. “Yet more than a decade into the 21st century, we are still hearing that PTC cannot be implemented this year — it is too costly and too difficult. This type of response would not have been tolerated concerning automobile seatbelt or airbag technology, and it should be not be acceptable here.” 

Dinh-Zarr said the NTSB “strongly supports full PTC implementation without delay.

“Each and every day that PTC implementation is delayed, the risk of a PTC-preventable accident remains,” she said. 

The chairman of the Senate transportation panel, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), expressed sympathy for the plight of railroad companies. 

“While I fully support the implementation of PTC, for years I have noted the complexity of its full implementation for both passenger and certain freight railroads,” Thune said. "The mandate covers over 60,000 miles of track and over 20,000 locomotives, and the complexity is compounded by the challenges of achieving seamless interoperability across passenger and freight railroads with differing systems.” 

The South Dakota lawmaker added that there was “broad agreement” in Congress about the need to extend the automated train deadline beyond December prior to the Amtrak accident last month. 

“There is merit in ensuring that railroads focus their time and resources on installing and testing PTC appropriately, so that the systems work as intended, especially given the $6 billion investment to date and the great need to put that investment to use,” he said.  “But there is also merit in providing additional oversight to ensure expeditious implementation."

Democrats, meanwhile, said the federal government should be providing more funding for the installation of the automated train technology. 

“We have heard at length about the technical challenges that PTC presents and we will hear more about that today,” Sen. Bill Nelson said at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing. 

“Undoubtedly, the installation of PTC is complex,” the Florida Democrat continued. “However, talking about the technical challenges will not make them go away. If we want to get this technology installed quickly, then we must do more.” 

Nelson said the Amtrak crash last month showed “we need positive train control installed and activated as soon as possible.” 
Source:http://thehill.com

Amtrak Anti-Crash System May Malfunction Near Freight Rails

JUNE 11, 2015

Radio interference from freight railroads may disable the automated solution Amtrak is finalizing to prevent high-speed derailments like last month’s fatal accident in Philadelphia.

The system that commands trains to slow to avert crashes may not work properly in some locations in the U.S. Northeast because it relies on airwaves that can be blocked by signals from equipment on adjacent freight tracks, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Freight railroads operating from New Haven, Connecticut, to Boston plan to use the same radio frequencies as Amtrak for their separate train-safety system, Charles Mathias associate chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, told Congress on Wednesday.

“This could degrade or disable communications on both systems, causing either or both to function improperly or stop functioning altogether,” Mathias said at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in Washington. “We understand the criticality of this,” and the FCC is working with railroads to resolve the issue, he said.

The radio-interference issue creates a new hurdle for the system that the National Transportation Safety Board said would have prevented the May 12 derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight passengers and injured hundreds of others. Known as positive train control, it has been delayed for years while railroads attempted to buy airwaves and wrestled with cost and technical issues.

Testing Started

Amtrak has options to resolve the interference and expects to complete installation by the end of the year on rails it owns along its popular Northeast Corridor route that snakes from Washington to Boston, Christina Leeds, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The passenger rail service has spent $110.7 million on the control program since 2008, Leeds said.

Installation was slowed because it took five years to purchase access to radio frequencies, DJ Stadtler, Amtrak’s vice president of operations, told the committee. He said Amtrak didn’t receive permission until May 29 to begin testing the system south of New York.

While Amtrak has sorted out all those issues, it must now consider the possibility that the system won’t operate as planned once freight railroads install their train-control technologies.

Because freight railroads aren’t ready to complete their system immediately, interference issues shouldn’t prevent Amtrak’s from working at least initially, Stadtler said.

Mobile Phone

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said most railroads won’t finish installing the system by Dec. 31 and Congress needs to set a “thoughtful” revised schedule.

While the train-control system has been in the works for years, it was thrust back into the spotlight last month after an Amtrak train going through Philadelphia sped toward a curve at as much as 106 miles (171 kilometers) per hour, or more than twice the limit, and derailed.

Investigators are still searching for answers to why the train was far exceeding the speed limit and why the engineer didn’t apply the emergency brakes sooner than he did.

In a report released just before Wednesday’s hearing, the NTSB said there was no evidence so far to show that engineer Brian Bostian was on his mobile phone or that he violated Amtrak policy prohibiting distractions from calls and texts.

Crash Cost

He also didn’t access the train’s Wi-Fi system while operating the locomotive, the NTSB said.

“We have determined that there was no talking or texting or data use involved,” NTSB Vice Chairwoman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr told the Senate committee.

Investigators haven’t yet ruled out whether the phone may have been used in other ways, Dinh-Zarr said.

The NTSB is attempting to determine whether the device was in “airplane mode” or was switched off during the trip. They have been examining the phone’s operating system, which contains more than 400,000 files, according to the NTSB’s statement.

Bostian, who suffered a head injury, has told investigators he doesn’t recall what happened prior to the crash. Bostian gave investigators his phone’s password, which allowed them to access data on the device without having to seek a subpoena, according to the NTSB.

The investigation will continue into the crash, which Amtrak estimates cost more than $9.2 million, according to a preliminary NTSB report released June 2.

Pentagon Briefs Congress on Live Anthrax Shipments and How Incompetent the Military Labs Truly Are. 68 laboratories in 19 states Washington, D.C., as well as four foreign countries are now known to have received the live anthrax samples.

Two airmen set up security at the contamination site during a Bio-Detection System exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Katrina Heikkinen)

 

Jun 11, 2015 | by Kris Osborn

 

Pentagon officials are trying to reassure lawmakers after the U.S. Army shipped live anthrax to unsuspecting labs across the globe.

Pentagon experts involved in the mitigation efforts briefed members of the House Armed Services Committee's Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee June 10 regarding ongoing progress to address the problem. 

Rep Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who chairs the subcommittee, and Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., issued a joint statement following a closed session with military experts on the situation. 

"The proliferation and potential use of biological agents remains a grave and enduring threat to the nation and to our deployed military forces. To deal with those threats, it is critical that the Department (DoD) maintains a robust program to develop biological countermeasures, including vaccines, therapeutics, protective gear and environmental monitoring," they said. 

While details from the closed-door session with lawmakers were not publicly available, senior Pentagon officials offered a few details on what the Pentagon is doing to address the problem.
These include working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ordering all DoD labs to test all previously inactivated spore-forming anthrax; and advising laboratories that have received inactive anthrax from DoD to stop working with those samples. 

The number of impacted laboratories and locations in the U.S. and around the world has been climbing steadily since the incident was first discovered at the end of last month.
 
Pentagon officials recently acknowledged that 68 laboratories in 19 states Washington, D.C., as well as four foreign countries are now known to have received the live anthrax samples. 

Sens. Wilson and Langevin said they remain concerned about safety procedures at DoD laboratories. 

"It is essential that the Department maintains a robust safety program to ensure these dangerous agents are handled and transported with the strictest of precautions. Clearly, the current safeguards did not work in these cases," the lawmakers' statement said. 

The live anthrax, which was mistakenly sent to commercial companies, academic institutions and various federal laboratories, also reached locations in the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia and Canada, according to a U.S. military statement. 

Pentagon officials said that, in addition to Washington, D.C., the states identified as having received live samples are California, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Washington, Illinois, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

In addition, 31 people are now being treated with what's called Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, a preventative medical treatment given to people after exposure to a pathogen. Eight non-DoD U.S. citizens and 23 DoD employees are among those now being treated, Pentagon officials said.

Speaking to reporters last week, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said that for the past 10 years, the department has regularly shipped inactivated or killed biological material to federal and private partner labs for development of biological countermeasures.

Work added that there is no risk to the general public from the mistakenly sent live anthrax samples, adding that the concentration of the samples was too low to infect the average healthy individual. 

"There are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection among any workers in any of the labs that have received these samples over the last 10 years. And we continue to work with the CDC to ensure that all possible safeguards are taken to prevent exposure at the labs in question, and that any worker that might have had the risk of exposure, even to these low concentrated samples, they are closely monitored," he said. 

DoD also said it has launched a comprehensive review of the situation to include a root cause analysis and thorough assessment of DoD laboratory biohazard safety procedures and protocols. 

Frank Kendall, the Pentagon acquisition chief, is leading the review, which is slated to finish by the end of this month. 

"The final report depends upon the completion of the CDC's investigation. It will focus on the root cause for the incomplete inactivation of anthrax samples at DoD laboratories, why post-inactivation sterility testing did not detect the presence of live anthrax, existing DoD laboratory biohazard safety protocols and procedures, DoD laboratory adherence to established procedures and protocols, and identification, and what steps should be taken to fix those problems," Kendall said. 

Wilson and Langevin said the committee "will remain engaged as the response moves forward, will work to make sure the investigation is transparent and that steps are taken to make sure this does not happen again."

Source: Military.com.

Another Road Work Zone Accident: West Virginia DOH worker, others injured in work zone crash

West Virginia DOH worker, others injured in work zone crash

The state DOH says this van pinned a DOH worker against a state truck Thursday afternoon on U.S. Route 50 in Wood County.

 June 11, 2015
 
PARKERSBURG, W.Va.  

A state Division of Highways worker suffered life-threatening injuries Thursday afternoon when he was struck by a vehicle in a work zone in Wood County. 

The chain reaction-type accident occurred at around 2:15 in the westbound lanes of U.S. Route 50 near the intersection of Old Landfill Road. 

State DOH spokesman Brent Walker said the worker was pinned between a van and a DOH truck.

“A truck hit a vehicle, who then hit another vehicle, who hit a van. The van was forced into the work zone where our workers were working and had struck a DOH worker,” Walker said. 

Walker said seven people were taken to hospitals including a second DOH worker who was being treated for shock. The DOH workers were taken to Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg. 

Walker said the wreck once again points out the importance of drivers staying alert in work zones. 

“Our workers are faced with this everyday and not just our workers but contractors and everybody else. It’s a dangerous job where their office is on the roadway,” Walker said.  Give them a break.

There was no initial word if speed was a factor in the crash. Police initially closed both westbound lanes. 
Source: http://wvmetronews.com

The Typical Suspects: Alcohol, drugs, speed, lack of safety devices factors revealed in Morgantown, WV boat crash that injured 12

June 11, 201

MORGANTOWN, W.Va

The accident report from a Memorial Day boat crash that injured a dozen people on Cheat Lake points to alcohol use, drug use and excessive speed as crash factors.

The Division of Natural Resources released the report Thursday afternoon.

Operator Brandon Solomon, 20, of Morgantown, surrendered to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department Wednesday. He faces 13 misdemeanor charges; eleven of those charges are boating under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled substances causing injury.

DNR investigator Aaron Clevenger wrote Solomon, of Morgantown, fell from behind the wheel area and lost control of the 2005 Malibu Wakesetter shortly before 9 p.m. May 25.

The boat crashed ashore near Warm Hollow road not far from Cheat Lake’s Sunset Beach Marina.

A week ago, the DNR released the names of the victims. They include:

Jacob Alexander, Reid Bailey, Rachel Coyle, Carley Dellasala, Michael Gaudino, Morgan Gerdon, Tyler Geyer, Bret Grady, Macy Robles, Brandon Solomon, Hannah Spangler and Carly Weinstien.

Clevenger’s report said Solomon had been using drugs and alcohol before the crash. He is free on $32,000 bond.

According to the accident report, nobody on board was wearing a life jacket. All 11 passengers and the operator suffered injuries, some critical, requiring them to be rushed to the hospital.

An estimated $25,000 worth of damage was done to the boat.

Source:http://wvmetronews.com

Police in the Town of Tonawanda, NY are investigating after a boater strike her head on a bridge beam and died while out on Ellicott Creek.

JUNE 11, 2015

TOWN OF TONAWANDA, NY 

Police in the Town of Tonawanda are investigating a fatal boating accident on Ellicott Creek Thursday morning.

The victim is a 16-year-old girl from Lockport.

Lockport school officials tell us the victim was Avery Gardner. They say she used to be enrolled in the district but has been home schooled since 2013. 

Nevertheless, the district is making counselors available for her friends and former classmates.

Meanwhile, police are investigating whether alcohol or speed played a role in the mishap.

Police say the girl was one of three passengers in a motorboat, along with her teenage boyfriend and an adult male.

As it approached a pedestrian bridge in Ellicott Creek Park west of Niagara Falls Boulevard, police say she stood up, striking her head on the beam which serves as the bridge's undercarriage as the boat passed beneath.

The boat traveled another 450 feet, before it was put ashore and her boyfriend started yelling for help.

Phil Bantle was one of several neighbors along Ellicott Creek Road who were rousted from their homes by his cries and rushed to try and help.

"There was an older gentleman holding the girl's head up, cradling if from behind and there was a lot of blood," Bantle told WGRZ-TV. "We managed to get the boat pulled ashore and tied down, and then I ran back and got a towel to try to stop the bleeding. I thought she was going to make it, I feel terrible for her family."

Source: http://www.wgrz.com