Chico , CA
A farm worker died Monday after becoming pinned underneath the tractor he was operating north of Chico, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The man was attempting to drive the tractor onto a trailer bed about 2:40 p.m. when the tractor tipped over, trapping the man, CHP officer John Murphy said.
The worker, who was estimated to be in his 50s, died at the scene, Murphy said.
His name was not immediately available.
The deadly accident happened near an orchard on Anita Road just off Highway 99.
The man was nearing the end of his workday at the time and maneuvering the tractor onto a truck and trailer, the officer said.
“He was driving it onto the trailer,” Murphy said. “And as he got onto the trailer it flipped over onto its left side, pinning him and trapping him under the tractor.”
Another worker moved the truck and trailer to make space for responding emergency workers to try to help the man, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, the officer said.
It was not yet clear exactly what caused the tractor to lose its balance and tip over. The accident remained under investigation.
“We don’t know if he was going too fast. We don’t know if it’s a mechanical issue,” Murphy said. “Those are all yet to be determined.”
The officer said investigators intended to contact the owner of the property where the man had been working, as well as other involved parties.
Traffic on Anita Road near Highway 99 was slowed for a period as emergency personnel worked at the scene.
Florida casino shuttle boat bursts into flames, leaving 1 dead
by Alex Johnson and Kalhan Rosenblatt
One person died after dozens of people jumped more than 10 feet into frigid winter waters after the shuttle ferrying them to a casino ship off the Florida Gulf Coast caught fire, authorities said Monday.
All 50 passengers aboard made it to shore Sunday, the Coast Guard told NBC News on Sunday night. One woman died after she arrived at a hospital emergency room, said Kurt Conover, a spokesman for Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.
The 42-year-old woman died at 10:42 p.m. ET, said Kevin Doll, a spokesman for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.
The woman went to the ER hours after the fire occurred, Conover said. Her name wasn't been released, and a cause of death hadn't been determined.
Eight other passengers were treated at and released from Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, Conover said. In total, about 15 people were treated at hospitals for minor injuries and as a precaution for hypothermia, police said.
The shuttle caught fire at about 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday as it was making its way to the Tropical Breeze Casino Cruise, according to Beth Fifer, the casino's assistant chief executive.
Port Richey Police Chief Gerard DeCanio said the captain saw smoke from the engine and turned the boat around. Then he started having engine trouble, said DeCanio, who said the captain had been reporting engine trouble before Sunday.
DeCanio said there was no suspicion of foul play. 
A boat burns Sunday after it caught fire while ferrying patrons to a casino ship off the Florida Gulf Coast. AP
Fifer said it was the first such incident since the shuttle began operating in 1995. Shuttles are needed to ferry customers to the casino, which operates in the Gulf of Mexico because it's not allowed on land in Florida.
Qaadia Culbreath was on board preparing to celebrate his upcoming 30th birthday when the fire broke out. Culbreath, who said he doesn't know how to swim, told NBC News affiliate WFLA that he didn't see any life jackets when the fire began to spread and was told to jump.
“The guy that was in the water said, ‘Man, jump, jump, jump.’ I was like, ‘Man, I can’t swim.’ So I was trying to climb off, and I was dangling off the metal hanger in the front of the boat because I didn’t want to let go,” Culbreath said.
As the boat headed to shore, Culbreath was able to navigate the shallow water to safety.
==================
By Zachary T. Sampson
Times Staff Writer
Long before a shuttle ship from Tropical Breeze Casino caught fire Sunday off the coast of Port Richey, leaving one passenger dead, the company behind the operation was a source of controversy.
The casino operator went by various names over the years — SunCruz, Paradise, Pair-A-Dice, Port Richey Casinos — but was consistently a major player in tiny Port Richey, where founders Alex and Mollie Kolokithas wielded heavy influence in local government. They also were connected to the larger gambling boat operation SunCruz, which was run by a millionaire who was later killed by a mob hitman in South Florida as his sale of the company devolved.
A spokeswoman for Tropical Breeze could not be reached Tuesday morning.
Early on, the Kolokithases worked under the umbrella of SunCruz, run in the late 1990s by South Florida millionaire and Miami Subs founder Gus Boulis. He sold the company for $147.5 million in 2000 in a deal that quickly grew contentious.
Boulis, 51, was shot and killed by a hitman in 2001. The sale later led to the imprisonment of Jack Abramoff, a former influential lobbyist and one of the buyers of SunCruz, who pleaded guilty to fraud.
The Kolokithases, who had leased SunCruz boats in exchange for sharing dock space in Tampa Bay with Boulis — ultimately splitting the profits — continued in the offshore gambling business undeterred. They fought over their right to use the SunCruz name in court with the company’s new owners while at the same time breaking off the business relationship.
In 2003, the family was at the center of a fierce debate in Port Richey over a bingo ordinance, which cropped up after the Kolokithases opened a bingo hall. The ordinance allowed commercial operators to run games all week, overriding restrictions from county law. The City Council ultimately voted to repeal it.
The next year, the casino operation was called Paradise of Port Richey when one of its shuttle boats caught on fire. It had just dropped off 78 passengers, and the captain and two crew members were rescued by a passing boat. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined the fire was started by a faulty fuel line, which would have been detected if the business had a preventative maintenance program.
In 2008, the gambling boat company ran afoul of state environmental investigators, who suspected the big ships were cutting up sea grass beds offshore.
The Kolokithases started their business out of almost nothing in the mid-1990s. They had operated a gambling boat in Texas, which was shut down by a bankruptcy court in 1992. They turned to Florida and launched the Mr. Lucky gaming boat in Tarpon Springs.
Mollie Kolokithas’ brother, Floyd Howard, told the Tampa Bay Times in 1998 that they were so cash-strapped, they had to scrape together gas money.
"The first lemons, limes and oranges that were put on the first Mr. Lucky cruise were bought with Mollie Kolokithas’ food stamps," he said at the time.
In 2002, when the Kolokithases had moved on to Port Richey and were trying to collaborate with local government, Mollie Kolokithas told a Times reporter they wanted "immortality" in the small city.
An obituary shows she died in 2015.
But state corporate filings for Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz, LLC show the business remains in the family, and in Port Richey, with Alex Kolokithas as manager.==================
PORT RICHEY, FL — As the boat disappeared in smoke and flames Sunday, as people leaped into the cold waters below, the neighborhood rallied. Residents helped the survivors ashore, gave them blankets and opened their homes to keep them warm.
The neighbors of Harborpointe Drive felt good that they were able to save about 50 lives.
Their joy ended Monday when they learned that one of the passengers died that night.
She was Carrie Dempsey, a 42-year-old mother of two from Lutz, according to the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office.
She was pronounced dead at 10:42 p.m. Sunday while being treated at Bayonet Point Regional Medical Center.
News of her death spread Monday morning through texts between neighbors.
"Today it hurt me because I felt like everything worked out for everybody and nobody got hurt," Larry Santangelo, 57, said. "Then you hear that and it’s disappointing, actually very depressing."
That grim news was the only development reported by officials a day after the harrowing boat fire. A phalanx of agencies launched investigations to determine what caused the fire and Dempsey’s death.
Many other questions remain unanswered, such as: How many people remained hospitalized? What condition were they in? What was the safety history of the boat and its crew?
The Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and the Medical Examiner all launched investigations.
The boat was operated by Tropical Breeze Casino Cruise. Spokeswoman Beth Fifer said Monday she had spoken to Dempsey’s father.
"We are just deeply saddened by the loss of that passenger and about any pain or trouble that has been caused to our passengers relating to this incident," she said.
Fifer said she did not know what went wrong with the vessel but it had been inspected by the Coast Guard.
"If we had any type of idea that there was a problem, we wouldn’t have left the dock," she said. "There was no inkling that there was any problems with that vessel whatsoever."
• • •
The boat was called the Island Lady, a 72-foot wooden-hulled T-boat, according to the Coast Guard. It was shuttling passengers to a casino boat in the Gulf of Mexico, where gambling is legal in international waters.
The shuttle is scheduled to depart at 3:30 p.m. every Sunday. Port Richey police said it was heading out to the gulf when the captain noticed there was something wrong with the engine and turned the boat around about 4 p.m.
"When he turned around to come in, that’s when it started to catch fire," said Port Richey police Sgt. Gary Lush.
The vessel was in the Pithlachascotee River, but police said the captain — who was not identified — knew that it was low tide and the passengers could walk to shore. The captain came within 100 yards of land.
"He knew if he got close enough to shore that they could jump out," Lush said. "It was mucky, knee-deep water."
The flames breached the stern, forcing the passengers to the bow. The residents of Harborpointe Drive watched in horror as the 50 or so passengers and crew jumped ship.
"They didn’t have much time to decide whether or not to jump," Bakr Jandali, 19, said Sunday. "The fire was moving fast. It was a hard jump."
That’s because it was still about 12 feet from the deck into the shallow water. They waded waist-deep in the cold water to shore.
Port Richey police officers arrived and helped residents rescue about a dozen people still in the water. Others cared for those who made it ashore.
Christine Hashim on Monday returned to the shore where she waded into the water to help. Scattered on the sand and up the steps to the street were clothing, shoes, socks, a prescription bottle. She gathered the items around sunrise Monday, just in case the owners want them back.
"They were really cold and very scared," Hashim, 50, said.
Officials said about 15 people complained of chest pain, smoke inhalation and other minor injuries as a result of the fire. There were also concerns about hypothermia after they waded in cold water on a chilly day in Florida, with temperatures in the 50s.
It took a county bus to get everyone to the hospital. None of the other passengers were identified Monday, and no information was released about their medical conditions.
• • •
Dempsey left behind two young children. Her husband, Joseph Dempsey II, died at the age of 33 in 2011, according to records.
Her family declined to speak to a Tampa Bay Times reporter.
Coast Guardsmen inspected the boat on Monday morning.
A small boat took four of them to the burned-out remains. Onlookers came by the cul-de-sac to get a glimpse of what was left of the vessel.
There was barely anything left of the boat above the waterline. An American flag, the only thing to survive the fire, waved from the bow.
The guardsmen boarded the charred boat, took photographs and left. They declined to comment.
Coast Guard spokesman Michael De Nyse said the agency could not comment about fire while the investigation is ongoing.
Another Tropical Breeze boat caught fire in 2004. Fifer said the NTSB ruled it was a repair issue.
"We intend to cruise again," she said.
A hot plate was the cause of a fire that killed a father and a daughter in the Bronx, police say.
The fire broke out at Sunday inside an apartment building at 2821 Dewey Ave. in Throgs Neck.
Nelson Rojas, 62, and his 13-year-old daughter Yolanda died at Jacobi Medical Center as a result of the fire.
The fire marshal's office says the hot plate was near bedding before it malfunctioned and caught fire.
Tenants tell News 12 the building has lacked heat over the years, which leads people to use unconventional method of heating.
===================
THROGGS NECK, Bronx (WABC) --
Authorities say two people were killed in a fire Sunday afternoon at a Bronx apartment building.
The
FDNY received the call at 12:12 p.m. for the fire in a 7-story
residential building on Dewey Avenue in the Throggs Neck Houses.
The fire was on the fourth floor.
The victims, a 62-year-old man and a 13-year-old girl, were found unconscious and unresponsive inside an apartment.
They were pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The fire was placed under control within an hour.
The cause is under investigation.
FREMONT, CA (KRON)–
A 30-year-old man died Wednesday evening in a workplace accident at Sysco in Fremont, CA.
According to Fremont police, the accident happened at 7:59 p.m. in the 5900 block of Steward Avenue.
Investigators say that a 30-year-old driver was backing a company tractor and trailer towards a loading dock. The victim was standing behind the vehicle and guiding the driver.
The driver finished backing up to the loading dock and unhooked the trailer, officers said.
Nearly 15 minutes later the victim was found pinned between the end of the dock and the parked trailer. Police say he was unresponsive.
The trailer was reconnected to the tractor and moved to free the man.
Drugs and alcohol aren’t factors in this incident.
Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food
products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging
establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its
family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the
foodservice and hospitality industries. With over 65,000 associates, the
company operates approximately 300 distribution facilities across the
globe and serves more than 500,000 customer locations. For fiscal year
2017 that ended July 1, 2017, the company generated sales of more than
$55 billion.
====================
Worker Dies in Fremont After Getting Pinned Between Big Rig, Loading Dock
By Bay City News
January 11, 2018
A 30-year-old man died at work in Fremont Wednesday evening when he was pinned between a tractor trailer and a loading dock while helping the driver back into place, according to police.
Emergency crews responded to a business in the 5900 block of Stewart Avenue just before 8 p.m. on report of a collision between a tractor trailer and a pedestrian.
Investigators say the man was standing behind the tractor trailer, guiding the driver towards the loading dock when he was pinned in place.
The driver backed all the way in and unhooked the trailer from the tractor. He found the victim, unresponsive, 15 minutes later.
The driver moved the trailer, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. He's been identified by the Alameda County coroner's bureau as Fremont resident Travis Michael St. Amant.
Drugs and alcohol were not factors in the incident, according to police.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
BURLINGTON CITY, N.J. (WPVI) -- Police said two people were transported to the hospital this afternoon after their car crashed through a metal fence and went into the icy Delaware River, one of whom has died.
According to Burlington County Police, a man and a woman were pulled from the river. The woman has died. Police said an accident did occur before the vehicle went into the water.
It happened just before 1 p.m. near 138 Riverbank Road in Burlington City, New Jersey.
Initial reports indicated that one person was able to get out of the vehicle; however, a second person remained inside.
Michael Baylor lives near the scene of the crash. He said he ran out of his house to help, but it was already too late.
"We were thinking she's been under so if she is alive it is a miracle," said Baylor. "They pulled him out and he said 'My girlfriend is in the car, can you help her?' and when they turned around he ran away."
Authorities confirm the driver fled on foot, leaving the woman behind. They said he was located a short time later and taken to Lourdes Hospital in Willingboro. Officials said he was not seriously injured.
Officials said the woman was extricated from the car around a half-hour later, at 1:27 p.m.
She was also transported to Lourdes Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Police said the driver was speeding on Riverbank Road when he hit a parked minivan and went over the river bank.
On Sunday the temperature of the Delaware River was only in the low 30s.
"With the weather, with the conditions, this is obviously a very severe event," said John Fine with the Burlington City Police Department.
No charges have been filed at this time.
The prosecutor's office said the investigation is ongoing.
==================
The Burlington City Police Department is investigating after crash leaves one person dead and the driver in custody when their auto ends up in the Delaware River. According to Burlington County Police, a man and a woman were pulled from the river. Police said an accident did occur before the vehicle went into the water.
Police responded to the riverfront promenade near Wood Street in Burlington City around 1 p.m. for a report of a vehicle in the water, the prosecutor's office said. Officials said that person was extricated from the auto around a half-hour later, at 1:27 p.m.
First responders found the vehicle partially submerged after it broke through the ice. The driver had fled the scene on foot, but his female passenger was still in the auto, authorities said. They were pronounced dead Saturday night at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the auto was traveling at a high rate of speed along Riverbank Road when the vehicle struck a parked minivan "before vaulting over the river wall and into the water", according to the prosecutor's office.
No charges have been filed, but an investigation is underway, the prosecutor's office said. Authorities did not release the names of the driver or passenger.
======================
3 people killed in two weekend crashes involving submerged vehicles
A woman died Sunday after the car she was riding in crashed through a metal barrier along the Riverfront Promenade in Burlington City and plunged into the icy Delaware River, the second fatal accident in two days in Burlington County involving submerged vehicles.
The Burlington City accident happened about 1 p.m on Riverbank when a vehicle left the road, crashed through the fencing and landed in the river, city police said.
Two people were inside, a male driver and female passenger. The driver, who was identified as a city resident, was able to escape, but the passenger was still in the vehicle when first responders arrived.
The woman was extricated and transported to Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said.
The driver ran off but was located a short time later by officers from Edgewater Park and Beverly. He was taken to Lourdes for a medical evaluation.
The names of the driver and deceased passenger were not released because notification of their families was still pending.
The other fatal crash occurred on Saturday about 4:30 p.m. at the jughandle of Route 130 and Bridgeboro Road in Willingboro. Authorities said a minivan was stopped at a red light and waiting to cross the highway when it was struck by a northbound vehicle, sent through a guard barrier, and down an embankment into Olympia Lakes, where it became submerged.
The occupants — identified as Robert Stephens, 52, and his wife, Janet, 50, of Burlington Township — were pulled from the water by rescue crews. Both were pronounced dead later that evening at Lourdes, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the accident with Willingboro police.
Amish Patel, 29, of Delanco, was identified as the driver of the car that struck the van. Patel was believed to be traveling at an excessive speed, but no charges have been filed, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
“The investigation will focus on whether criminal behavior was responsible for the collision and subsequent deaths,” said Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office.
The office is also assisting in the investigation of the Burlington City accident, along with numerous first responders, who arrived at the scene within minutes of the initial 911 call of a vehicle submerged in the river. Among the emergency crews were the city, Burlington Township, New Jersey State Police and Croydon, Pennsylvania.
Water rescue crews used a ladder to enter the river at a public parking area across from the Veterans of Foreign Wars building. The vehicle appeared to be submerged, with debris floating nearby on top of chunks of ice.
An investigation into the accident is ongoing, but officials from the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the car was traveling at a high speed when it struck a minivan parked along the road, then vaulted through the fencing and into the water.
City resident Joe Entwistle, who witnessed the accident from the VFW, said he and several other bystanders tried to assist the occupants. He said a man in his mid to late 30s was on the back of the overturned and submerged vehicle and was helped out of the river.
“Three or four of us pulled him out. He was soaking wet and panicking, saying his girlfriend was in there. Then he took off. I guess he was in shock,” Entwistle said.
He said the vehicle was overturned with “four tires up” and sinking fast when he got to the scene.
Entwistle said he wasn’t sure how long the woman was underwater, but he couldn’t see her from the riverbank.
“It’s a shame. I think they got here pretty fast, but she must have been in there for 15 or 18 minutes,” he said.
City police Capt. John Fine said firefighters and rescue teams worked very quickly and extricated the motorist “within minutes.”
No charges had been filed against the driver as of Sunday night, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. His condition was not available.
The three weekend deaths marked the first traffic fatalities in Burlington County this year, according to New Jersey State Police records. Last year, 49 people died in 47 motor vehicle accidents in the county. Only Ocean County had a higher death toll, with 54.
