Friday, June 12, 2015

Fatal crash in Suitland Parkway, D.C.; one arrested, one at large


June 12, 2015
One person is dead after a two-car crash on Suitland Parkway at Firth Sterling Avenue (WTOP/Jamie Forzato)
WASHINGTON, DC

A two-car accident leaves  one person dead, another on the loose,  and another under arrest after a crash on inbound Suitland Parkway at Firth Sterling Avenue.

The crash happened at 11:45 p.m. Thursday and inbound traffic had been blocked as the investigation stretched into the Friday morning commute, but the scene was cleared by 6:30 a.m.

Lt. Ronald Wilkins, with Metropolitan Police’s special operations division says a silver Volvo traveling inbound on Suitland Parkway T-boned a dark-colored Chrysler 300 on outbound Suitland Parkway that was attempting to make a left turn onto Firth Sterling.

Wilkins told reporters the striking vehicle was speeding at the time of the crash.
Several people were trapped inside each vehicle.

A female passenger in the vehicle that was struck was transported to the hospital, where she died. The driver and two other passengers were transported in serious but stable condition, Wilkins said.

Wilkins said the driver of striking vehicle fled on foot “and he’s still at large,” although police believe he was injured because “there was a lot of blood in the car where he was.” Wilkins did not have a description of the driver’s appearance.

One passenger of the striking vehicle ran, “but he didn’t get far,” before being arrested for having a loaded gun, said Wilkins.

The remaining passenger of the silver striking vehicle was injured and is in custody, but is not currently cooperating with investigators, according to Wilkins.

Police are investigating the possibility that the speeding Volvo was fleeing a previous crime, said Wilkins.

Video cameras at the intersection likely captured the incident, said Wilkins, although investigators are just beginning to recover video and other evidence.
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1 dead, 1 injured in accident on I-15 near Toquerville, Utah.




TOQUERVILLE, UTAH

One person has been killed and another transported by ambulance following a one-vehicle accident Friday afternoon on Interstate 15 near Toquerville.


The accident was reported at about 3:12 p.m. and occurred on northbound I-15 at approximately milepost 26. The accident involved a white pickup truck driven by a juvenile from Cedar City, according to a press release from the Utah Highway Patrol. The passenger in the vehicle was his father, also a Cedar City resident. The father was pronounced dead at the scene.


Fatal accident on Interstate 15 near Toquerville, Utah, June 12, 2015 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Fatal accident on Interstate 15 near Toquerville, Utah, June 12, 2015 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

“The driver drifted off the road way then overcorrected,” the press release said. “The vehicle rolled at least two times.”
The juvenile driver was taken by ambulance to Dixie Regional Medical Center. The extent and nature of his injuries have not been specified as this report is published.
Both the driver and his father were wearing seat belts at the time of the accident, according to the press release.
Traffic near the accident scene is backed up and slow moving on northbound I-15. In the vicinity of the accident, northbound traffic has been reduced to one lane. Lane restrictions are expected until 5:30 p.m., according to the press release.
Motorists should expect delays and use caution while traveling on northbound I-15 as the scene is being attended to.
Travelers wishing to avoid the freeway traffic backup may take Exit 22 at Leeds and travel on the frontage road to bypass the accident area. Adhere to speed limits if traveling through this residential area.
This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
St. George News Assistant Editor Cami Cox Jim contributed to this report.











Fatal accident on Interstate 15 near Toquerville, Utah, June 12, 2015 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Source:https://www.stgeorgeutah.com
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After rioting, Baltimore police, staff to receive $1.7M in workers compensation payments. The costs are among an estimated $20 million the rioting is expected to cost taxpayers.







Baltimore police, staff file 169 workers comp claims after riot.
 
After Baltimore descended into rioting in April, police officers and other city staffers have filed 169 workers compensation claims with city government, reporting various injuries, a budget official said Tuesday.

As a result, the city expects to pay out $1.7 million, according to Bob Cenname, Baltimore’s deputy budget director.
The costs are among an estimated $20 million the rioting is expected to cost taxpayers. Officials are temporarily covering the costs with money from the city’s rainy day fund while seeking reimbursement for up to 75 percent from Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Cenname said the workers compensation costs included multiple claims for injuries sustained during the unrest from falls or altercations. Police have reported that 113 officers were injured during that time. Cenname said some officers might be out of work for an extended time.

“Of those who were injured, some of are back to work and some are off,” he said.

In 2013, Baltimore taxpayers paid out $13.6 million to police officers for workers compensation claims.

Baltimore descended into rioting on April 27, hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in police custody. Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help keep order.

The violence that day began with students throwing rocks at police at Mondawmin Mall and exploded into looting and fires throughout the city. More than 380 businesses reported damage, and 61 buildings were burned, city officials say.
Source:http://www.baltimoresun.com
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1 teen killed, several others injured in Utah County, Utah high speed rollover accident

 


 
JUNE 12, 2015
 
LEHI, Utah

 A rollover crash in Lehi killed one teenager and injured others late Thursday night.

Authorities were called to the crash, near 2600 N and 300 E, shortly after 11 p.m.

Officials said the vehicle involved had been traveling at least 50 mph, but the speed limit along the narrow, winding road is 20 mph.

A passerby witnessed the crash and approached the scene to find four of the six teenage occupants in an SUV had been thrown from the vehicle.

According to a news release, that witness stayed at the scene and administered CPR to the driver until Lehi Fire Department Paramedics arrived.

A statement from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said the driver, 17-year-old Maryah Edwards, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Police said the other victims, three girls and two boys, had a variety of injuries.
The statement also said 17-year-old Jayden Farrell was thrown from the vehicle and suffered numerous injuries, including a broken back and neck.

Jayden was taken by helicopter to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, where he underwent surgery to relieve presssure on his brain.

Deputies said a 17-year-old girl riding in the front seat was the only one who was wearing a seat belt and she suffered only minor injuries.

Utah County deputies are continuing their investigation to determine if alcohol or drugs were involved.
Source:http://fox13now.com
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No Need For Insurance: How Self-Driving Cars Will Disrupt A $200 Billion Industry


In the age of autonomous vehicles, driving your car could soon become illegal, Elon Musk recently suggested.

Additionally, getting rid of the driver could also have remove the need for private insurance, as all the liability in case of an accident would be transferred to the car’s manufacturer, the software creator, or other third parties. It makes sense, if you think about it for a minute: if you relinquish control over what your car is doing, why should you pay for any misdemeanor?

And it not just common sense: this possibility (purely theoretical, at this point) is outlined in an essay by Yale Law School student Jack Boeglin in the current issue of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.

“If nondiscretionary-communicative vehicles became mandatory (as the introduction of either the interactive or remote-controlled models might require), there would be no need for private insurance, since all liability for AVs would be transferred to manufacturers,” writes Boeglin. He adds, “Eliminating the entire automobile insurance industry (which has roughly $200 billion dollars in annual revenue) would be a monumental boost to administrative efficiency.”


In this May 13, 2015 photo, Google’s new self-driving prototype car is presented during a demonstration at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. The car, which needs no gas pedal or steering wheel, will make its debut on public roads this summer. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)


For insurance companies that might be a catastrophe, at least for a while, as they struggle to adjust, but they could soon find other revenue streams, like signing deals with manufacturers.

The chance of having passengers’ full attention during a drive would also create a huge amount of possibilities of monetization for advertisers and content providers.

On the customer’s side, not having to pay for an insurance could prove an irresistible bait for cash-strapped car owners, helping them overcome all their fears related to the further erosion of privacy that could take place if driverless, connected and remotely-controlled vehicles become mainstream.
In Boeglin’s view, freedom, privacy, and liability are not independent elements, but interlocking pieces, that together compose the puzzle of driverless cars’ regulation. It’s like a formula, the final result of which depends on the weight of each element of the equation.

Do you want more privacy and freedom? You’ll have to pay for it. It’s not an altogether new concept. A number of insurance companies already allow customers to pay less, if the consent to install a ‘black box’ on their vehicles which keeps track of certain parameters, like stopping speed, acceleration, and turning radius. Usage-based insurance programs like Progressive PGR -0.22% Snapshot and Allstate ALL -0.18% Drivewise are good examples of that.

But intelligent cars, with the assistance of 360-degree cameras, could provide much more information: from whether a safe braking distance was observed and the laws of the road were followed to how smoothly turns were handled.
“These vehicular telematics could also provide a telling comparison between the driving behaviors of the human driver and her automated companion,” Boeglin says.

In other words, they could help estimate the ‘percentage’ of driver’s fault in case of an accident and distribute the liability between the man and the machine. In the case of what the student calls ‘discretionary communicative vehicles’ (those in which the driver can still override autonomous driving) the guilt would be pondered in accordance with the evidence collected by the vehicle’s computer.

In the extreme scenario, in which the human completely relinquishing control to the machine, all the liability would go to the manufacturer.
Source:http://www.forbes.com
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1 Dead After Fiery Crash on a Tree On Highway 101 In San Jose



June 12, 2015
 
SAN JOSE (CBS SF)

A driver is dead after his station wagon veers off northbound U.S. Highway 101 in San Jose and bursts into flames.

The crash occurred at 1:54 a.m. Friday near Blossom Hill Road, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP says the driver veered off the road and hit a tree.

The force of the impact nearly split the minivan in half causing it to burst into flames. The trees then caught fire.

Good Samaritans called 911 and tried to stop and help.

Emergency crews couldn’t get to the driver for about 20 minutes because the heat and flames kept them back.

It turns out the driver was from out of town.

No word on the cause of the crash, or if driver fatigue was a factor.

The crash closed lanes of northbound U.S. Highway 101 for a few hours.

All lanes have since reopened.
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The driver of a Volvo is at large after a T-bone violent crash that claimed the life of a woman in southeast D.C.

JUNE 12, 2015
 
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA9)

The driver of a Volvo is at large after a violent crash that claimed the life of a woman in southeast D.C.

Metropolitan Police officers responded to Suitland Parkway and Firth Sterling Avenue around 11:45 Thursday night after a Volvo t-boned the passenger side of a Chrysler in the intersection. Four people were inside the Chrysler, including a female passenger who later died. The driver of the Chrysler suffered non-life threatening injuries, was sent to the hospital and is expected to be fine. The other passengers were not hurt.

The Volvo driver has not been identified but police say he was hurt in the crash and will need medical attention. They are confident they will be able to find him. Charges against the passenger in the Volvo are carrying pistol without license and possession of unregistered ammunition.

A passenger in the striking vehicle also tried to run but was arrested. Police say he had a loaded gun on him at the time and has a weapons charge filed against him.

A third person in the Volvo was also hurt, but not seriously. That passenger stayed on the scene and was taken to the hospital.

Police say speed was definitely a factor in the crash although it's not clear why they were going so fast. "At this point it is still early in the investigation. It was a very busy night throughout the city, that's one thing we always look at is to see if they were fleeing somethings," says Lt. Ronald Wilkins with Metropolitan Police Department.

Police continue to investigate and are reviewing camera footage from intersection.

The intersection of Suitland Pkwy and Firth Sterling was blocked in all directions throughout the night. Both lanes of Suitland Pkwy are now open.
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Oklahoma Highway Worker Killed By Fallen ‘Stop’ Sign When a Holding Cord Broke



JUNE 12, 2015

TULSA, OK

A Meramec worker died at a Tulsa hospital Thursday following an accident that occurred while he and another man were trying to fill a sinkhole along a highway near Westport.
 Jerald Warden, 53, was directing David Burnes, 50, of Pawnee, as he operated a dump truck to a spot in which to load asphalt into a sinkhole in the median of the four-lane divided U.S. 412, about 200 feet east of Leroy Road just east of Westport in Pawnee County, according to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol report.
A bungee cord securing a stop sign in the bed of the truck broke, causing the sign to fall and hit Warden in the neck about 1:50 p.m. Thursday, the report states.
Warden was taken in critical condition to St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, where he died just after 3 p.m., according to the report.
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Construction Worker Crushed to Death by an Elevator At Baylor University Building Site in Texas




A construction worker died Friday morning at a Baylor University building site when an elevator apparently fell on him

 JUNE 12, 2015

WACO, TEXAS


 A man, believed to be a construction worker, died Friday morning at a Baylor University building site when an elevator apparently fell on him.

Rescue workers and police were sent at about 11:45 a.m. to a construction site at 4th Street and Bagby Avenue after a caller reported a man had been injured in an accident, Baylor media spokeswoman Lori Fogelman said.

When East Texas Medical Center EMS personnel arrived they determined the man was dead.

The construction site is part of the Foster Campus of the new Baylor Business School and still is under construction, Fogelman said.

The man’s identity had not been released.

No one else was injured in the accident, Fogelman said.
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Dirty Blue Bell: Listeria Source Likely Identified and is likely linked to a non-sanitary room.



June 10, 2015



Blue Bell Ice Cream (Source: CBS4)
Blue Bell Ice Cream (Source: CBS4) 

HOUSTON (CBSMiami/AP)

Blue Bell Creameries says they believe the listeria found in one of its facilities is likely linked to a non-sanitary room.

Meantime, the company has not  pinpointed a single source for the contamination at at its Texas plant, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Texas-company submitted information about how it plans to correct the problems to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which inspected Blue Bell plants after the company’s ice cream was linked to listeria illnesses in four states and three deaths in Kansas.

The documents, released by the FDA in response to an open records request by The Associated Press, also confirm that surface areas tested at an Alabama plant turned up the most serious form of listeria. No illnesses have been linked to products made at that facility.

Blue Bell stopped production at its plant in Brenham and at facilities in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Alabama after issuing a national recall in April. The contaminated products have been found at the company’s Texas and Oklahoma plants.

In a 35-page response to FDA inspections done earlier this year, Blue Bell said ice cream products at its facility in Oklahoma might have been contaminated with listeria by equipment and sealed-ingredient buckets stored in a non-sanitary room. Blue Bell said its investigation found that “atomized particles” that could have carried listeria were released from a nearby drain in the room.

“If the equipment and the outside of these buckets were not cleaned successfully before being put back into the production area, they could have spread listeria into product through employee and equipment contact,” the company wrote in its response.

Equipment is no longer being stored in this room, the company said.

At its plant in Brenham, Texas, Blue Bell said its initial efforts focused on breaking down equipment and lines, but that “it eventually became evident that we would not be able to identify a single source for our entire Brenham facility, so we adopted a broad-focused remediation plan.”

Blue Bell said that at both its Brenham and Oklahoma plants, it is cleaning and sanitizing all parts of its production areas and breaking down equipment for comprehensive cleaning and sanitization.

A private laboratory says it found evidence of listeria in a carton of ice cream manufactured at the Alabama plant.Blue Bell said it is reviewing the test results.
Blue Bell said it will implement — at all of its plants — improved testing procedures for equipment and surface areas, as well as for ice cream products. 

The company will also reconfigure lines and equipment, and add troughs and splash guards to ensure that condensation does not drip into ice cream products, a problem the FDA had highlighted in its inspections.

Blue Bell will also institute a company-wide clothing policy, with workers being provided coverings they must wear in production areas.

“We hope our efforts demonstrate the seriousness with which we are taking this situation, as well as our commitment to making sure we get this right,” Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse said in a statement.

“Once Blue Bell, the FDA and the applicable state regulators agree we are ready to reintroduce products into commerce, we plan to resume production with a phased-in selection of flavors and sizes, expanding only after our revised programs have demonstrated they are capable of ensuring product safety,” Kruse said.

No date has been given for when Blue Bell products could be back in stores. The recall forced Blue Bell to lay off more than a third of its workforce.

Also Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its investigation into the outbreak was over. But it said people could still get sick because individuals could eat contaminated products that they might have in their freezers. The CDC says people should not eat any recalled Blue Bell brand products and institutions and retailers should not serve or sell them.

Listeria illness generally affects only the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women and newborns. The three people who died in Kansas were already hospitalized for other illnesses when they consumed the tainted ice cream.
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5 Injured In Pompano Boating High Speed Accident When the Boat Hit a Jetty


June 12, 2015

Five people were injured in a boating accident on Friday in Pompano Beach, fire rescue officials said. (Source: Carey Codd)
Five people were injured in a boating accident on Friday in Pompano Beach, fire rescue officials said. (Source: Carey Codd)

POMPANO BEACH (CBSMiami) 

Five people were injured in a boating accident on Friday in Pompano Beach, fire rescue officials said.

According to a Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokesperson, a boat carrying five people hit a jetty at around 7 p.m.

A 14-year-old was air lifted to Broward General with non-life threatening injuries, fire rescue said.

The others were taken to Broward North. Their conditions were not released.
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HEART ATTACK, NOT TREE CRASH, KILLED VENDING MACHINE DELIVERY DRIVER IN BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN




JUNE 11, 2015

BERRIEN COUNTY, MI 

A delivery driver who was believed to have been killed during a single-vehicle collision in Berrien County Thursday afternoon actually died of a heart attack, police said.

Scot Dailey, 52, of Schoolcraft, was making deliveries to local vending machines at 2:30 p.m. Thursday when his truck veered off the road and struck an electrical transfer tower at Sodus Parkway and Edwards Street, in Sodus Township, a news release issued by the Berrien County Sheriff's Office said.

Seeing the truck, a passerby flagged down an off-duty sheriff's lieutenant for help, who later found Dailey "slumped over the steering wheel unconscious," the release said.

Emergency crews removed Dailey from his vehicle and performed CPR, though authorities pronounced him dead at the scene.

During the investigation, police learned Daily called his employer before the collision and said he wasn't feeling well and was having chest pains, according to the release.

The Berrien County Medical Examines Office later ruled Dailey died of a heart attack. 

The Michigan State Police and Sodus Township Fire Department assisted at the scene.
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Ohio, Michigan agree to crack down on phosphorus pollutants feeding Lake Erie's toxic algae

The Associated Press

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2014 file photo, the City of Toledo water intake crib is surrounded by algae in Lake Erie, about 2.5 miles off the shore of Curtice, Ohio. Ohio and Michigan have agreed to sharply reduce phosphorus runoff blamed for a rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie that have contaminated drinking water supplies and contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can't survive, Friday, June 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)

Ohio and Michigan have agreed to sharply reduce phosphorus runoff blamed for a rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie that have contaminated drinking water supplies and contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can't survive.

The two states along with Ontario, Canada, said Friday that they will work to cut the amount of phosphorus flowing into western Lake Erie by 40 percent within the next 10 years.

It's a significant move to combat the algae blooms that have taken hold in the western third of the lake over the last decade and colored some of its waters a shade of green that's drawn comparisons to pea soup and the Incredible Hulk.

Researchers have linked the toxic algae to phosphorus from farm fertilizers, livestock manure and sewage treatment plants that flows into rivers and streams draining into the lake.

Groups studying the algae blooms, including a U.S.-Canadian agency, began calling for a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus about two years ago. That suggestion took on greater urgency last August after an algae outbreak contaminated public drinking water supplies for more than 400,000 people in Toledo and parts of southeastern Michigan.

The largest bloom came in the summer of 2011, stretching more than 100 miles — from Toledo to Cleveland.

Officials in the two states and Canada will develop plans on how to reach their goal to reduce the phosphorus runoff. They hope to start with a 20 percent reduction within the next five years.

"No one state owns the lake or the whole problem, nor can one state fix it," said Craig Butler, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. "It took a generation to get here. If we can change this in 10 years, that's pretty quick."
Officials plan to sign the deal Saturday at the Council of Great Lakes Governors meeting in Canada.

"I believe it's an achievable goal," said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.
The International Joint Commission said two years ago that urgent steps were needed to get control of the algae through a combination of regulations and voluntary actions.

Some of those steps have been put in place over the past year.

Ohio has new rules banning farmers in northwestern Ohio from spreading manure on frozen and rain-soaked fields and requiring training before farmers can use commercial fertilizers. The state also is increasing monitoring of wastewater plants. Michigan, meanwhile, has a voluntary program to help farmers reduce pollution that goes into waterways.

The two states along with Indiana also will begin sharing $17.5 million from the federal government to reduce farm field runoff by planting strips of grass or cover crops that help soil absorb and filter phosphorus.

Environmental groups that have been pushing the states to do more to combat the algae said a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus should have a major impact.

"This is a game-changer, an ambitious collective goal that, if met, could significantly reduce harmful algal blooms and the economic, social and environmental havoc they wreak," said Mike Shriberg, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office.

Indiana, which is a part of the watershed that flows into the western part of the lake, didn't agree to take part in the plan.

Adam Rissien, the Ohio Environmental Council's director of agricultural and water policy, said the agreement will give a real opportunity to improve water quality. "It's unfortunate, though, that Indiana chose not to join in this cooperative spirit since the state also contributes phosphorus to Lake Erie," he said.

A message seeking comment about Indiana's decision was left Friday with the state's Department of Environmental Management.
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BSEE Proposes Regulations to Improve Safety of Offshore Cranes


JUNE 12, 2015

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) today announced another key step in reducing risk offshore. The proposed rule, which will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, would implement best practices and update regulations regarding the safety of cranes mounted on fixed platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf.

“Over the past seven years, 16% of fatalities offshore have been associated with lifting incidents,” said BSEE Director Brian Salerno. “We are focused on reducing risk offshore and are proposing this rule to improve the safety of cranes for offshore workers.”

The proposed rule, which will be open for public comment, addresses safety issues for cranes mounted on fixed platforms including the loading of cranes, their service life, braking systems, and personnel safety. It would include the incorporation of accepted industry best practices and update ​​current BSEE regulations.

The public may submit comments on the proposed regulations during the 30-day comment period that begins June 15, 2015, when the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register. 

Comments may be submitted via regulations.gov, the federal government's official rulemaking portal. The proposed regulations are also available here.​​

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