A welder who died at the Gary Works steel mill Friday had been looking for another job because he thought his current workplace was getting unsafe

UPDATE: Steelworker dies at Gary Works

Joseph S. Pete joseph.pete@nwi.com, (219) 933-3316
Updated 1 hr ago


A steelworker died at U.S. Steel Gary Works mill Friday, according to the Lake County coroner’s office.

Jonathan Arizzola, 30, of Valparaiso, was killed in the U.S. Steel Slab Storage Yard at the sprawling mill that stretches across 7 miles of Lake Michigan lakeshore at 1 N. Broadway in Gary, the coroner’s office reported.

Arizzola was a maintenance worker, Navy veteran and married father of two. He was pronounced dead at 9:45 p.m. Friday, according to the coroner’s office.

The cause and manner of death remain under investigation.

U.S. Steel external communications manager Sarah Cassella said an accident had occurred Friday in the hot strip mill.

“An investigation is underway, and we will work closely with the United Steelworkers and relevant government agencies throughout the process,” Cassella said in an email.

“No further details regarding the incident are available at this time. Our deepest sympathies are with the employee’s family.”

The Lake County coroner’s office, U.S. Steel Emergency Management, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Office are investigating the death at the largest steel mill in North America.

Arizzola’s death at Gary Works comes weeks after protests that U.S. Steel and the consulting group McKinsey & Co. were making the mill less safe by laying off and demoting maintenance workers. The United Steelworkers union said the cuts were putting workers at risk by putting off preventative maintenance and causing work orders to pile up.

The USW is appealing the layoffs to a third-party arbiter, arguing the company violated the contract and is threatening workplace safety.
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Welder Who Died At Gary Steel Mill Thought His Workplace Was ‘Getting Dangerous,’ Wife Says October 1, 2016 12:24 PM
 

GARY, Ind. (CBS) — A welder who died at the Gary Works steel mill Friday had been looking for another job because he thought his current workplace was getting unsafe, his wife tells CBS 2.


Jonathan Arizzola (courtesy: Arizzola family), 30, of Valparaiso, Ind. died at the U.S. Steel Slab Storage Yard, the Lake County, Ind. coroner said. No cause of death was given.

The workers union at the mill said company cost-cutting measures and workplace pressures may have been to blame. Arizzola’s wife, Whitney, said her husband had been working between 70 hours to 90 hours a week, fixing and welding overhead cranes on the property.

“It started getting dangerous, so he started looking for work recently,” she tells CBS 2’s Sandra Torres.

Arizzola was a Navy veteran and a father and had worked at the mill for about four years, Whitney Arizzola said.

U.S. Steel said the fatal “incident” is under investigation.

“Our deepest sympathies are with the employee’s family,” a spokesperson for U.S. Steel.

Labor officials have accused U.S. Steel of making the mill less safe through layoffs and by shuffling workers to other jobs.

On Saturday, United Steelworkers Local 1014 posted a statement on Facebook.

“While all the details are being sorted out one thing is indisputable: this is horrible news and this young man who was a Husband, a Brother, and a Father, didn’t make it home last night,” President Rodney D. Lewis Sr. said.

Old pilot killed after a 1944 Culver PQ-14A vintage aircraft crashed into BB&T Bank in Long View, North Carolina

Saturday, October 01, 2016 09:16PM

LONG VIEW, N.C. --

Emergency officials in Catawba County say the pilot of a vintage aircraft has died after the plane crashed into a building in Long View.


Emergency services responded to a call of a plane crash that happened near a BB&T Bank on Saturday afternoon.

Long View Fire Department, Hickory Rescue Squad and N.C. State Troopers are on the scene after a small red plane was found in the 3200 block of 1st Avenue SW.

Catawba County Emergency Manager Karen Yaussy said 81-year-old George Baxter Harris of the Hickory area was the only person onboard the Culver PQ-14A when it crashed Saturday around 1:10 p.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the aircraft was headed to Hickory Regional Airport when it crashed, adding that it had also left from the airport earlier.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force says on its web page that the Culver Aircraft Corp. built three basic models in quantity for the Army in 1940. The PQ series was initially designed as radio-controlled target aircraft for training anti-aircraft artillery gunners for the Army and the Navy.

Date:

	01-OCT-2016
Time:	13:10
Type:	Culver PQ-14A
Owner/operator:	Private
Registration:	N4648V
C/n / msn:	N2432
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Airplane damage:	Substantial
Location:	Catawba County, west Hickory, NC -   United States of America
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Unknown
Departure airport:	Hickory Rgnl (KHKY)
Destination airport:	Hickory Rgnl (KHKY)

Narrative:
The aircraft impacted a commercial business structure south of the approach end of Runway 1 at Hickory Regional Airport(KHKY) in Hickory, North Carolina. The airplane sustained substantial damage and the sole pilot onboard received fatal injuries.
Sources: http://www.hickoryrecord.com/news/small-plane-crashes-near-bank-in-hickory/article_355899a4-8800-11e6-9d25-9b6b38e7305c.html
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/small-plane-crashes-in-long-view-catawba-co-officials-say/452443590
http://www.wbtv.com/story/33294549/crews-responding-to-small-plane-crash-in-catawba-county
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=4648V
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7283905,-81.3920058,19z/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en-us
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver_PQ-14_Cadet

At least 12 wedding guests were injured after a Jolley Trolley trailer overturned on Route 1 south of Dewey Beach in Delaware

Delaware trolley carrying 22 wedding guests crashes

Delaware State Police



DEWEY BEACH, Del. The Delaware State Police are currently investigating a crash involving a Jolly Trolley south of Dewey Beach, CBS WBOC affiliate reports.

Police say the crash occurred around 4:41 p.m. when a 76-year-old Lewes man was operating a 2005 Ford Econo van, pulling the Jolly Trolley with approximately 22 passengers on board, who were wedding guests. For an undetermined reason, police say the trailer started to sway and then overturned in the southbound lanes on Route 1. The van immediately stopped and bystanders in the area began assisting, pulling passengers from the trolley. At least 12 people were transported by Sussex County EMS to nearby hospitals where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries. The operator of that van was uninjured.

No citations were issued; the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Route 1 northbound and southbound was closed, but has since been reopened due to that crash.

Further details will be reported upon the updates from the investigation. 

If speed did not cause the crash, then the wedding guests were rocking the trailer too much.

1 worker with Cap Construction killed, another hurt in unshored trench collapse in American Fork, Utah

  1 worker killed, another hurt in trench collapse in American Fork, Utah
By Ben Lockhart | Posted Sep 30th, 2016 @ 10:31pm


AMERICAN FORK— A construction worker died after a trench collapsed Friday in American Fork.

Another worker was also trapped in the collapse up to his thigh, according to American Fork Police Lt. Sam Liddiard. Emergency responders helped him out of the collapsed trench. He was able to walk around afterward but was taken to American Fork Hospital by ambulance "as a precaution," Liddiard said.

The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. at the construction site, 860 E. 500 South, where an unstable trench, more than 6 feet deep, had started to collapse. The man who died had jumped in to try to fix the problem and clear debris, Liddiard said. The injured man had jumped into the trench to help the first man.

Construction crews were digging either a major waterline or sewer line at the time.

The name of 41-year-old man who died was not immediately released. Rescue teams from surrounding fire departments were still trying to recover his body late Friday afternoon, according to Liddiard.

A third worker was temporarily trapped after he jumped in to assist the first two men, but he was able to get out of the trench on his own power.

Workplace investigators were dispatched to the scene to determine what caused the incident. It appears that the trench was not properly shored, if any.

The trench filled quickly with dirt once it destabilized, Liddiard said.

"It wasn't a complete collapse. The dirt just started to roll over the top of them," he said. 


The two other workers were taken to the hospital.

There was no update on the injured worker's condition.

The worker who died was an employee of Cap Construction, Liddiard said. A company representative told 2News nobody was immediately available to comment. Crews recovered the body after arriving on scene.

CALQUAKE: Small magnitude earthquakes near the Salton Sea earlier this week prompted state officials to issue an advisory on the possibility of similar or larger earthquakes in the near future.

Governor's Office of Emergency Services issues earthquake advisory for surrounding areas


Thursday Posted Sep 29, 2016 at 8:41 AM Updated Sep 29, 2016 at 4:35 PM

By Jose Quintero
Staff Writer

Small magnitude earthquakes near the Salton Sea earlier this week prompted state officials to issue an advisory on the possibility of similar or larger earthquakes in the near future.

“California is earthquake country. We must always be prepared and not let our guard down,” said Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci in a statement. “The threat of an earthquake on the San Andreas Fault hasn’t gone away, so this is another important opportunity for us to revisit our emergency plans and learn what steps you need to take if a significant earthquake hits.”


Ghilarducci asked the California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, which includes scientists from the California Geological Survey, University of California at San Diego, Southern California Earthquake Center at USC and the United States Geological Survey, to discuss and evaluate a sequence of small earthquakes that recently hit the Salton Sea area.

According to the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the council “concluded that stresses associated with this recent earthquake swarm may slightly increase the probability between 0.03 percent and 1.0 percent of an additional earthquake as large, or larger, than the Sept. 26 magnitude 4.3” occurring until 9 a.m. on Oct. 4.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has issued an earthquake advisory for the San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties based on the discussions.

“Local emergency management, government, schools and the public should review their earthquake preparedness plans, maintain awareness and be prepared to take action should the earthquake occur,” the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said.

USGS Research Seismologist Robert Graves told the Daily Press that these types of advisories should serve as a reminder to residents to take precautionary measures.

“In general, advisories are not common. They have been issued in the past in situations like this where we see somewhat unusual behavior, particularly near our large active faults,” Graves said. “Living in Southern California we are in this together and have to acknowledge and recognize that earthquakes are a part of life.

"They are unpredictable in terms of when, where or how large. But past history has shown us you don’t go very long within a time span where you don't have a strong or major earthquake.”


The San Andreas Fault, which runs through the Cajon Pass, stretches 700 miles through California, and the southern end is estimated to be 50 to 100 years overdue for a large earthquake.

The San Andreas Fault suffered two major quakes in the 19th century — a 7.5 magnitude in 1812 and a 7.9 earthquake in 1857. The San Andreas Fault in Southern California has been quiet since and Southern California hasn’t had a true “Big One,” which is a quake greater than a 7.7 magnitude, since 1857.

Other nearby fault lines include the San Bernardino fault zone near Oak Hills, the Helendale Fault and a fault line that goes through Lenwood. Graves said most of the faults in the High Desert are active faults.

“The San Andreas Fault is a major player but it is not the only fault. But the rate in which (the other faults) have earthquakes is far lower than the San Andreas Fault,” Graves said. “In 1992, there was a large earthquake (magnitude 7.3) called the Landers Earthquake which ruptured north of Indio and east of Barstow. That quake ruptured on a series of faults that prior to that event, the previous earthquake was maybe 60 or 80 thousand years ago. So very infrequent, but obviously an active fault.

“Prediction in a precise sense is not and may never be possible, but with a fault like the San Andreas — (it's) had large earthquakes in the past and will have large earthquakes in the future.”