The toll of 9/11 is still climbing. Last month, James Zadroga, a 34-year-old New York City police detective, became one of at least a dozen Ground Zero workers who have died of a respiratory disease they contracted during rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Centers.

More than four years after hijackers rammed passenger jets into the twin towers, at least a dozen people who worked at Ground Zero have died of diseases attributed to the witch's brew of deadly chemicals and toxic substances that filled the air at the disaster site.

Thousands of other Ground Zero workers are suffering from serious respiratory ailments. The victims include police officers, firefighters, construction workers and even immigrant laborers. Some call these forgotten men and women the "walking dead."

James Zadroga became the first NYPD officer to die as a direct result of exposure to Ground Zero's cocktail of chemicals, said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association.

"I do not think he will be the last, unfortunately," Palladino said.

Zadroga, whose wife had died of heart disease a year earlier, was a strong 6 feet 2 man, weighing more than 260 pounds before getting sick:

But the last four years offered a picture of a different man. Shortly after finishing his rescue and recovery work at the World Trade Center, Zadroga developed a chronic cough, shortness of breath and acid reflux. He was plagued by nightmares and headaches. Within months, he needed oxygen tanks, antibiotics and steroid injections on a regular basis.

Zadroga wasn't just killed by his more than 450 hours working in the witches brew of toxic dusts resulting from the collapse of the World Trade Centers, he was also screwed by the NYPD:

While Zadroga was losing the battle with his lungs, he was also losing a fight with the city. In March 2002, James filed a line of injury report with the NYPD, documenting his labored breathing and persistent cough. The report proved worthless, his parents say.

Joseph Zadroga says the NYPD never acknowledged his son's condition until it was too late. James was often forced to report to work — over a two-hour drive from his suburban New Jersey home — when he couldn’t even walk up the stairs, his father says.

"He felt the loss not only from being sick but by the treatment of the police department," he said. "He felt abandoned."

***

"They’re just letting people die like dogs," said Joseph Zadroga. "They’re treating them like a number and letting them die."

Zadroga wasn't to the first and he won't be the last to die in the aftermath of the Ground Zero recovery efforts:

Zadroga was one of many "walking dead." Estimates vary, but tens of thousands of workers and residents have reported some lingering effects from Ground Zero exposure. Of the roughly 70,000 people currently enrolled in Mount Sinai's World Trade Center health study, more than 60,000 suffer some kind of respiratory problem.

Dr. David Prezant, co-director of the New York Fire Department's World Trade Center medical program, conducted a lung function study of 13,000 firefighters, EMTs and paramedics. He said that after Sept. 11, the average breathing capacity of the people tested dropped more than 11 times the normal aging process.

A federal judge found that former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Todd Whitman deliberately mislead the public when she reassured the public after the collapse of the World Trade Centers that the air was safe to breathe in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Heck of a job, Christie.

Hat tip to Susie at Suburban Guerrilla for this.

Labels: 9/11 World Trade Center Workers

Uncle Sam Giveth, Uncle Sam Taketh Away...

Thousands of Americans working in the nation's weapons labs throughout the Cold War were exposed to radiation and a number of other toxic compounds, resulting in cancers and other fatal and disabling disases. Until the late 1990's their exposures and diseases were ignored and denied by federal authorities. Finally, during the Clinton administration, the federal government recognized the contributions made -- and the price paid -- by these Cod War veterans. In 2000, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act (EEOICPA) which established a compensation program for former nuclear workers.

Former employees who had worked in certain plants where exposure to high levels of radiation was well recognized, and who had contracted certain types of cancer, automatically received $150,000. These are called "Special Exposure Cohorts (SECs)." Workers in plants where exposures may have varied were forced to gather their exposure records, with the help of the Department of Energy, and have their radiation dose "reconstructed" by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to determine if their cancer had been caused by their exposure. Where workers in certain facilites found it impossible to reconstruct their dose, Congress established an Advisory Board on Worker and Radiation Health the authority establish additional Special Exposure Cohorts which would make workers at those facilities automatically eligible for compensation.

Two weeks ago, the Associated Press noted a small paragraph in the Bush Administration's budget documents that indicated that White House budget officials were proposing to

take steps to limit costs associated with a benefits program for Cold War-era nuclear workers who developed cancer from radiation exposure, according to a White House document.

The working group will discuss whether "administration clearance" should be required before groups of workers are deemed eligible for compensation, the document said.

According to Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA),

"This is a gross breach of faith," said Harkin. "Nuclear workers all across the country have been dragged through years of public hearings and investigations. They have played by the rules, and are closer to finally getting the compensation Congress said they deserve. This is wrong. It is putting bureaucracy before science. It is putting bureaucracy before simple fairness for people who served their country loyally and at great risk."

Ames Lab workers in Iowa, as well as facilities in Colorado, Tennessee and the Marshall Islands are under consideration to be included in the SEC.

Even Republicans are upset at the Administration's proposal:

Rep. John Hostettler R-Ind., who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee that oversees claims issues, said he would hold hearings on the compensation program.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., decried attempts to alter the program, saying, "Any effort by Department of Labor bureaucrats to limit these benefits would be a true injustice to these workers, their families and their memory."

Meanwhile a report released last week by a Department of Labor Ombudsman found that although over $1.5 billion had been paid to nuclear veterans, thousands of former employees were having serious problems

with a requirement that they obtain workplace records, some of which are more than 50 years old. In many cases, the report said, records "were not maintained at the time of exposure, or if made, were lost or destroyed."

In addition, workers thought the government takes too long to estimate how much radiation workers were exposed to.

"Otherwise eligible claimants may die while waiting for a result," the report said.

Workers also complained that claims examiners failed to return calls and that their cases were reassigned to new examiners unfamiliar with their histories.

The full report can be found here.

Yesterday, Confined Space. Today, the Washington Post. Tomorrow...Confined Space

Washington Post, February 16, 2006, Page B4

Study Links 700 Deaths Yearly to Md. Plants
Effects on Health Of Burning Coal Felt Widely, Report Says

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Page B04

Pollution from Maryland's six largest coal-burning power plants contribute to 700 deaths each year, including 100 deaths in Maryland, according to a Harvard University study released yesterday.

The study was sponsored by the Maryland Nurses Association, which supports a bill in the legislature that would require such plants to sharply reduce pollution over the next decade.

Today's Washington Post, Letter to the Editor:

Burying 700 Dead

If an industrial accident had killed 700 people, it would be front-page news in not only The Post but in newspapers across the country and the world. How is it, then, that a study linking 700 deaths every year to six Maryland power plants only merits Page B4 in the Metro section ["Study Links 700 Deaths Yearly to Md. Plants," Feb. 16]?

-- Jordan Barab

Takoma Park

I reported yesterday about the chromium industry's cover-up of evidence that low levels of hexavalent chromium can cause cancer in workers. Most of my story was based Rick Weiss's Washington Post article. After rereading the story today, I have a small bone to pick with Weiss. This is from his article:

OSHA has not said what the new limit will be. But sources close to the agency have been told to expect a standard that would allow five times more exposure than it had initially proposed -- a shift that would be a victory for the industry, saving it billions of dollars in upgrades and plant closures.

Who says that the lower OSHA limit would "save the industry billions of dollars in upgrades and plant closures?" The chromium industry itself, that's who.

Here we have a case of a journalist swallowing and regurgitating industry propaganda as if it were fact. Maybe it was my head cold, or maybe it was the jet lag, or maybe it was written in such a matter-of-fact tone -- but I totally missed it when I was writing my piece last night.
Should we believe these scare tactics? I think not.

OSHA has never proposed a standard where the regulated industry has not claimed that the sky would fall, bankruptcy would loom, billions of dollars would be wasted and jobs would be lost if OSHA succeeded in issuing its dasterdly standards. I've sat through dozens of OSHA hearings and read the transcripts and propaganda generated by dozens more. And just as assuredly as the sun rises in the East each morning the industry predicts doom and damnation -- not just for their noble industry, but for the entire American way of life, if not western civilization.

So what are the facts?

A 1995 study by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) studied several OSHA regulations, all of which showed the exact same thing: industry's predicted costs are always overestimated:. The OTA

looked at several OSHA standards that had been in effect for a number of years to determine the accuracy of cost and benefit estimates by OSHA and the regulated industries. The study showed that not only does industry grossly overestimate expected costs, but even OSHA routinely overestimated the costs and underestimated the benefits of standards. OTA found that part of the reason that OSHA overestimates costs is that the agency fails to take into account the fact that American businesses are especially talented at developing new technologies that are much more cost effective and efficient than OSHA had predicted.

In other words, whatever you want to say about the hazardous products or political objectives of American industry, one thing you have to give them is that they're incredibly creative in developing new and innovative technologies. If only they had more confidence in themselves. Maybe therapy would help.

Well this is certainly surprising:

Scientists working for the chromium industry withheld data about the metal's health risks while the industry campaigned to block strict new limits on the cancer-causing chemical, according to a scientific journal report published yesterday.

The allegations, by researchers at George Washington University and the Washington-based Public Citizen Health Research Group, are based on secret industry documents obtained by the authors.

They come just days before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to announce its new standard for workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium -- a known carcinogen handled by 380,000 U.S. workers in the steel, aerospace, electroplating and other industries.

***

OSHA has not said what the new limit will be. But sources close to the agency have been told to expect a standard that would allow five times more exposure than it had initially proposed -- a shift that would be a victory for the industry, saving it billions of dollars in upgrades and plant closures.

The report appears in the journal Environmental Health.

The industry's failure to make the information public is especially troubling considering that OSHA, in the course of court-ordered rulemaking, requested industry to provide any new data particularly "data related to relatively low exposures common in modern factories, so the agency would not have to extrapolate from the very high exposure levels in earlier studies."

Turns out that the industry's "Chromium Coalition" had exactly that evidence, but was hiding it. George Washington University Professor David Michaels, Celeste Monforton (also at GW) and Peter Lurie of Public Citizen (which sued OSHA for a new standard) happened upon the evidence last year when the Industrial Health Foundation, the Chromium Coalition's legal agent, filed for bankruptcy and Michaels and Lurie got a look at some of their files.

Among them are the 1996 minutes of Chromium Coalition meetings describing a decision to hire scientists to create and analyze data that would "challenge" OSHA's nascent effort to impose low exposure limits.

"Although this route is expensive and success is not guaranteed, the longer we wait the more difficult the task becomes," one document concludes.

Most surprising was a 153-page report summarizing an industry-sponsored study of workers in chromium plants in the United States and Germany. The study was the most thorough ever to include workers exposed to low levels -- just what OSHA had asked for. But its results had never been released.

The report concluded that exposures ranging from 1.2 to 5.8 micrograms resulted in a fivefold increase in deaths from lung cancer.

"Here you have an agency repeatedly asking for data of this kind, and nothing is forthcoming," Lurie said.

The contract scientists who led the study had gone on to divide the data into two sets and changed the way they grouped the workers. As a result, one study -- published in 2004 -- found no increased risk, and the other -- soon to be published -- found an increased risk only in those with very high exposures.

Those manuscripts were submitted to OSHA.

"Maybe there's a reason they did it that way. I don't know. But on the surface it doesn't look very good," said Herman Gibb, an environmental consultant who led a seminal Environmental Protection Agency study of 70,000 chromium workers in Baltimore.

OSHA is on the verge of issuing a new Hexavalent Chromium standard. The agency is under court order, following a lawsuit by Public Citizen after the agency failed to act on a 1993 Public Citizen petition for a new standard.

The decades-old "permissible exposure level" is 52 micrograms per cubic meter of air. On the basis of the few large studies done in recent years, advocates sought a new level of 0.25 micrograms. In 2004 OSHA released a proposed limit of 1 microgram.

According to OSHA, the 1 microgram limit would result in two to nine excess deaths in every 1,000 exposed workers over a 45-year lifetime of work. That is more than the one-death-per-1,000 standard the agency aims for but is reasonable, it said, in light of the high costs and technological challenges involved.

Of course, those assumptions are based on a record that is lacking some of the most relevant data uncovered by Michaels and Lurie.

Now, some of your innocents out there may think that a company that covers up evidence that it products may be harming or killing people would be guilty of some kind of criminal behavior. But, no, turns out this is just another day in the life of corporate America (as those of you who regularly read Confined Space are aware.) Michaels, who is doing quite a bit of work in this area, points out that industry's behavior in this case is similar to that of tobacco and pharmaceutical companies that were found to have withheld damning evidence of risks associated with their products. And if you've read Deceit and Denial by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, you'll find almost identical tactics throughout the history of lead and vinyl chloride. Oh, and then there's the little issue of asbestos....

Michaels is also director of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), a coalition of scholars examining the application of scientific evidence in the legal and regulatory arenas. Check out the SKAPP webpage for a number of case studies that explore the use of science in government decision-making and in legal proceedings.

Brown University professor David Egilman has also written extensively on "suppression bias," where a company that has uncovered evidence that their product may be harmful to workers or consumers "choose[s] not to share that information with workers, customers, and the general public, especially when the studies reveal alarming health consequences."

So let's move along, nothing to see here. Sleep well. You're in good hands.

Related Stories

• OSHA's Belated Hex Chrome Standard: "Sorry I'm Late Dude, But There Was This Humongous Hurricane, and uh....", November 30, 2005
• Suppression Bias: Uncovering the Coverup of the Corporate Coverup, May 23, 2005
• Hexavalent Chromium: A long story, lacking sound or fury, November 10, 2004
• OSHA Issues Hex Chrome Proposal, October 2, 2004

Revere at Effect Measure not only contributed to keeping Confined Space afloat, but managed to write some pretty amazing stuff at his home base. We've written quite a bit here about how the chemical industry "manufactures doubt" about the cancer-causing or other damaging health effects of its products. The purpose, of course, is to encourage everyone -- consumers, juries, judges and regulators -- to throw up their hands at the allegedy confusing and contradictory evidence, leaving the products unregulated -- and the profits undiminished -- until the evidence becomes so overwhelming that even the blind can see.

Check out Revere's piece from last week which reveals a classic example of an industry public relations effort to manufacture doubt about the risks of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA is a chemical used to make Teflon and is one of DuPont's most profitable products, making the company around $200 million every year.
(other Confined Space pieces on PFOA here and here).


Workers Comp Insider is just chalk-full of interesting stuff including an article about coping with the death of a co-worker, workers compensation issues involving "independent contractors," an article about the problems employers will have re-integrating Iraq war veterans, and a devastating piece about an internal web site operated by Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr.

The AFL-CIO has finally gotten on the bandwagon with its very own blog AFL-CIO NOW. It doesn't have a separate health and safety "channel," although it covers workplace safety issues. It also links to Confined Space, so someone over there is reading the right stuff.

Meanwhile, Tapped (the American Prospect's blog) turns us on to Laying It On The Line, a blog written by Roger Tauss, Legislative and Political Director of the Transport Workers Union. Looks interesting, except that for some unfathomable reason, he doesn't link to Confined Space. We'll have to work on that.

As I return to my lonely basement after a well earned and much-enjoyed vacation in a part of the world where they think our limited vacation time is crazy, my heart is filled with gratitude for the valuable and fascinating contributions of Revere, Cervantes and Tammy, but my nose and sinuses are filled with mucous as I take a rare sick day from work. Perhaps Revere or Cervantes can come up with a logical explanation: while I'm generally a very healthy person, I tend to get sick after long trans-Atlantic (or trans-Pacific) travel. Perhaps I chose wisely when I decided not to become a flight attendant.

Meanwhile, I just survived 5 straight days without touching a keyboard -- a new record -- without any ill effects (aside from this horrendous cold). I even managed to read a 500 page book, an activity increasingly rare among us bloggers.

Finally, in my absence, I find that I've been nominated for two Koufax awards -- Best Expert Blog and Best Single-Issue Blog. Revere at Effect Measure has deservedly joined me in these categories, as have dozens of other even more deserving blogs. The Koufax Awards -- which single out the best lefty blogs (get it?)-- bestow awards in a variety of different areas (e.g. Most Humorous Post and Best Post).

Aside from the miniscule chance of winning (which won't happen for Confined Space until there's a category for Best Workplace Safety blog), the main benefit of these awards is exposure to some of the best writing in the blogosphere. You can find all of the categories at Wampum's main page (left column). (There are still a few more categories to come.) And if you're amazed and astounded at the world of blogs that you never knew existed, drop a few well-earned pennies in their donation box.

By the way, voting hasn't started yet. You'll be the first to know...

So, stay tuned. Blogging may remain a bit on the slow side until my head clears of fluids and refills with that old, familiar sense of outrage.

The smoke-free workplace has become so familiar that most of us -- especially us non-smokers -- never give it a thought. Of course if you were Georgia Republican lawmaker Charlie Norwood, you might have reason to think about it as you scooted around your workplace in a motorized wheelchair hooked up to an oxygen tank and with a newly transplanted lung. Because where he works it's just fine to light up in many places, including public spaces like the Speaker's Lobby.

That's where Norwood was caught in the cloud that an aide says he didn't complain about, but where a lighted cigarette passed so close to his oxygen tank, one observer worried the whole place might go up.

"I can't go in there. If I have to go in, I have to get out. It's very unfair," Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a Los Angeles Democrat and crusader for nonsmokers' rights, recently complained. (LA Times)

The new majority leader John Boehner is a chain smoker, so the atmosphere isn't likely to clear soon. Washington, DC doesn't allow smoking in public places, but Congress is, well, an exception.

Flouting its host city's new smoking ban could enhance the impression that Congress holds itself above its citizenry. It is immune from the Freedom of Information Act and many federal civil rights and labor laws. It can vote itself raises even if the economy tanks, has health insurance while as many as 46 million Americans go without, and its members soon will be free to puff away in their congressional digs while the rest of Washington's smoking public is forced out into the cold.

[snip]

The Republicans have made the Capitol friendlier for tobacco since they claimed the majority. No more calling on the heads of the seven tobacco companies to defend their practices under oath, as Waxman did in 1994. In fact, Rep. Roy Blunt, No. 3 in the GOP leadership, is married to a lobbyist for the parent company of industry giant Philip Morris.

Incidentally, Charlie Norwood is also behind the Republican congress's most brazen attempts to gut OSHA. In fact there are so many of Jordan's posts about Norwood I can't link them all. Here and here are a couple. So if Charlie has an unhealthy workplace I'm not going to cry about it.

But what about all the rest of the staffers who work long days in the Congressional offices of their smoking bosses? I don't wish a lethal disease on anyone. But if it has to happen to someone, why not these guys?

[Guest post by Revere of Effect Measure]

Labels: Charlie Norwood

National park worker dies in single-car wreck

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — A park maintenance worker was killed in a single-car accident Monday afternoon. Arnie Kovin, 54, who worked at the Southern District Maintenance Division in the park, was traveling south on U.S. 441 about 2:30 p.m. just past Smokemont Campground when his car left the road and flipped, landing in a nearby stream, said Nancy Gray, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. Kovin was alone in the car.


One Dead in Failed Donut Shop Robbery

NY - A career criminal suspected of having murdered the manager of a local Dunkin’ Donuts during a brazen midday robbery is currently at large, and police are on a citywide manhunt to catch him. Otis Cain, 46, is suspected of having entered the coffee shop on West 145th Street around 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon, announcing what turned into a botched armed robbery that resulted in the death of one employee. The victim, Sanjoy Kar, was a 25-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant and computer science student at Baruch College. According to ABC 7, the store where Kar worked part-time was owned by his family. According to police, the assailant entered the store and waited in line before he took out a gun and shot Kar in the back. The victim attempted to escape, but the assailant then shot him repeatedly while he was on the ground. As terrified employees ran out of the store, Cain jumped over the counter and tried to sack the cash drawer, fleeing empty-handed when he was unable to open the register.


Woman dies in stabbing at packaging plant

TX - A 53-year-old woman was fatally stabbed about 2 p.m. Monday at Lambert Street Packaging, a food-packaging company where she was an employee Officers were called to the 3400 block of East Commerce Street after a man who also worked at the plant stabbed the woman near an assembly line, police said. The woman died at the plant after being stabbed in the torso, said Lt. Brian Head of the San Antonio Police Department. Her assailant fled. He is described as a 6-foot-tall, thin man with many tattoos


Man hurt in blast dies from injuries - Curtis Brackett suffered severe burns in explosion

NC - A man burned in last week's explosion at a Morganton chemical plant died early Sunday from his injuries, the first fatality from the blast that reverberated for miles. Curtis Brackett, known to many as Butch, died at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The 55-year-old had been treated for severe burns there since Tuesday's explosion at Synthron Inc., a paint additive manufacturer. The explosion injured 15 people and damaged homes and buildings in the area. Its effects have been also blamed for killing at least 1,000 fish downstream


Midair collision kills 3 - One plane crashes; other lands safely

WI - Three people were killed in a midair collision near the Dodge-Jefferson county line Sunday when the cargo plane they were in struck another cargo plane and then crashed and burned, authorities said. The plane containing the three victims crashed about 5 p.m. near highways 19 and Q, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said in a recorded message. It was not immediately clear from her message whether the impact of the collision or the subsequent crash caused the three deaths. Three people in the other plane landed safely in Juneau and suffered no injuries, Cory said. Both planes were multi-engine small cargo planes and had taken off from Milwaukee together and were flying together, but their departure times and destinations were unknown, Cory said. Both planes belonged to Air Cargo Carriers Inc. of Milwaukee. Randy Jackson, a dispatcher with the company, said the company plans to investigate but had no further comment.


Man Shot Dead At Busta Rhymes Video Shoot

AZ - Rapper Busta Rhymes security guard who was protecting the set of a video shoot in an industrial warehouse in Brooklyn was shot dead on the sidewalk early Sunday. The security guard, 29-year-old Israel Ramirez was shot once in the chest, he pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital Center at 1:10 a.m. Police are uncertain whether the shooting had any connection to Rhymes or his associates as 14 shots were fired from an AK-47 assault rifle outside the studio.


Memorial Service For Murdered Employee

SC - Some couldn't stand, others just couldn't believe that someone could walk into the back door of the Little Caesar's on White Horse Road and murder, Stephanie Goodnough, a mother of four. Owner Bob Johns says, "She was a very good worker and a kind person, we just can't believe this." On Monday they closed down the Little Caesar's once again. They didn't open until six that night so her employees could attend Goodnough's memorial services. Customer Linda Tucker says, "It's sad. She didn't deserve to lose her life over this." Co-manager Stephanie Goodnough opened the store on Friday morning. Deputies say just moments later someone ended her life with a single gunshot.


2 Teens Held in Slaying of Pr. George's Worker

CA - Two 17-year-olds have been arrested and charged in Monday's shotgun killing of a worker who was renovating a house in Prince George's County, county police said. The victim was identified yesterday as Avel Monroy, 31, of the 1400 block of Langley Way in the Langley Park area of the county. Police said he was shot during a robbery of several men who were working on a house on Maygreen Avenue in the Forestville area. The suspects, who were arrested within hours of the killing, were charged as adults with first-degree murder, said Cpl. Diane Richardson, a county police spokeswoman. She identified them as Alphonso Jones of the 2700 block of Lakehurst Avenue and Walter Pierce Jr. of the 2600 block of Lakehurst. Their addresses are within about a half-mile of the site of the shooting. Police said they were struck by how inconsequential the proceeds of the robbery seemed: wallets and cell phones. They also noted the seeming willingness of the robbers to act in the open, in daylight, "without apparently any regard to who saw them," Richardson said.


Worker dies in machine accident at LDS printing plant

A 32-year-old man was killed Tuesday in an accident at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Printing Center in Salt Lake City. Adan Smith of Salt Lake City was pronounced dead on arrival, said fire spokesman Dennis McKone. The fire department received a call of a person trapped in a compactor at the facility, 1890 W. Industrial Circle (1850 South), at 1:36 p.m., said McKone. Crews arrived within two minutes to find the man had already been pulled free. Smith's co-workers shut off the machine and were able to easily pull the man out, said police spokesman Dwayne Baird. They also performed CPR on Smith. It was unclear how the accident occurred, though McKone said it was assumed Smith reached into the compactor and was pulled


Farmer dies after fall into grain bin

OH - A 67-year-old farmer was found dead Wednesday after he apparently fell into a grain bin at his home, the Examiner newspaper reported in its online edition Thursday. Jerry Wiford of 971 S. Twp. Road 46 was declared dead at the scene, but authorities said they do not know the time or cause of death. The Logan County Coroner's Office, which said the death does not appear suspicious and most likely was accidental, is awaiting preliminary autopsy reports, the newspaper said. Bellefontaine fire and squad crews, called about 1:15 p.m., found a relative shoveling corn away from Wiford, who was dead. A grain vacuum was brought from Champaign Landmark's West Liberty grain elevator, and three tractor-trailers unloaded enough grain to recover the body. Wiford had been unloading grain the past several days, according to incident reports, and started Wednesday morning intending to free up frozen corn inside the 30,000-bushel bin. He was untethered when he fell in feet-first, the newspaper said.


Cab driver killed in Route 5 crash

VA - The Veteran's Cab driven by Anna Margaret Watson Renalds, 43, of the 13000 block of Gallant Fox Drive, crossed the center line of state Route 5 in Henrico County before the crash, police said. Renalds was ejected from her vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, said Henrico police spokesman Lt. Doug Perry. The man driving the SUV was taken to VCU Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Perry said.


Owner of motorcycle shop shot dead, longtime employee arrested

AL. - Authorities in Talladega County are investigating the shooting death of a local businessman. 62-year-old Jerry Wayne Harrell, co-owner of Motorcycle Sports on Alabama 21, was shot in the back of the head yesterday morning as he sat in his office. Sheriff Jerry Studdard said it happened about 9:30 a.m.. He said the suspect, a longtime employee of the shop, was taken into custody and is being held in the Talladega County Jail. The sheriff said formal charges could be filed tomorrow.


State parole officer dies after Cox Park shooting

KY - A state probation and parole officer found shot in Cox Park on Monday died early yesterday morning. Gerald Zellar, 49, of New Albany, Ind., died at University Hospital about 3:45 a.m. yesterday, said Jim Wesley, a deputy Jefferson County coroner.


Worker killed at Fort Myers power plant

FORT MYERS — A worker was killed at the Florida Power & Light plant on Palm Beach Boulevard Tuesday afternoon. FP&L spokesman Grover Whidden says two men from West Palm Beach were inspecting the cooling towers when an external staircase collapsed. The men fell four stories to the ground. Whidden says Andres Sanderson died in the accident. Mark Diamond was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital. Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and an FP&L safety team are expected in Fort Myers today to look into the incident. Whidden says FP&L plants across the state are closing all external staircases until they can be inspected. He said the Fort Myers plant has an excellent safety record


Worker killed as trench collapses at golf course- 2 others injured; one man trapped nearly 4 hours

NA - A collapsed construction trench trapped three workers Tuesday afternoon at a northwest Reno golf course, leaving one dead and two injured. Four men from Western States Equipment were in the 10-foot-deep trench installing a storm sewer drain -- part of routine maintenance -- near the second hole of the Somersett Country Club golf course when the dirt gave way, burying three of the workers, fire officials said. The collapse trapped one worker, buried to his chest, for almost four hours before being rescued from the muddy trench. Another, buried to his waist, was trapped for a half hour. His heart and breathing stopped, but medical personnel revived him, officials said. Both were flown to Washoe Medical Center.


Construction Site Accident Leaves One Dead

TX - A construction worker was killed in an accident while working on the new State Highway 130. The accident happened Wednesday afternoon at the construction site located on State Highway 130 and FM 971 in Georgetown. Jorge Hernandez, 38, was killed in an accident on the SH 130 right-of-way in Georgetown. Hernandez, who lived in Austin, was an employee with Lone Star Infrastructure. He had been with the company for a year. Hernandez died during a paving operation. This is the second tragedy associated with work on the new state highway. Last July, a 22-year-old construction worker was crushed to death by a piece of heavy equipment. It happened on the northeast side of Lake Walter E. Long. "There was a large piece of machinery paving the overpass itself, and the individual was working in front of the machine and accidentally became entangled in the augger that was on the machine and was killed," Georgetown Assistant Police Chief Kevin Stofle said. Construction on SH-130 has come to a hault for the time being.


Worker Dies After Injury At Arena

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A worker at Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas has died from injuries he suffered in an accident while moving bleachers. Andrew Loren, 65, of Springdale, died Sunday after a Thursday fall. Officials say Loren fell 8 feet. University sports information director Kevin Trainor said the bleachers are regularly moved in to allow for more room for basketball practice or so the floor can be used for other events, such as graduation. The bleachers were being moved in advance of the Arkansas basketball game with Auburn last Saturday. Loren fell at about 7 p.m. Thursday. Loren had worked for the men's athletic department since Aug. 21, 2004. Trainor said counseling is available to athletic department employees and that the department is helping to cover Loren's funeral expenses. The university will review its procedures to see if changes are necessary.


Worker struck, killed by vehicle

FL - A Fort Lauderdale man was struck by a vehicle and killed this morning while doing work on a drainage hole west of Lantana, authorities said. The incident occured while Richard West, 47, was laying on the corner of Country Estate Drive and Pineville Drive in the Country Cove Estates development on Lantana Road. West was plastering cement on a drainage hole about 11:15 a.m. when a vehicle pulling a trailer struck him, according to the Palm Beach County After being struck, West fell into the drainage hole, officials say. He was transported to Delray Medical Center, where he later died. Sheriff's Office.The truck was being driven by Mark Brown, 28, who lives west of Boca Raton. Sheriff's deputies are investigating the incident.


Fallon man killed in accident

NV - The Washoe County Coroner’s office has released the name of the 41-year-old man killed in a construction accident in Pleasant Valley late Friday. David Coverston of Fallon, an Ames Construction employee, was killed while working on a bridge under construction as part of the Highway 395 Extension in Pleasant Valley when the motor grader he was operating about a quarter mile up the hillside drifted off the road and slid down the embankment. Coverston jumped off the grader when it started to slide and was run over by the machine. No one else was injured in the accident. The incident is under investigation by two agencies.


Officer dies from injuries suffered in car accident

IL - A Chicago police officer has died from the injuries he suffered last month when his squad car hit a church on Chicago's South Side.Officer Eric Solorio had been hospitalized since January 17 when the squad car his partner was driving swerved to avoid an accident when they tried to conduct a traffic stop. Their car struck a tree and the Alpha Temple near Marquette and Halsted. Officer Solorio died of his injuries Sunday at Christ Hospital. He was 26 years old. Solorio is survived by his mother, two sisters and a brother.


Perry County coal miner killed in roof fall -2006'S 3RD MINING DEATH COMES AS LAWMAKERS CONSIDER SAFETY RULES

KY - A Perry County coal miner yesterday became Kentucky's third mining fatality in 2006, just as state and federal officials announced efforts to toughen mine-safety laws. Timothy Wayne Caudill's death was the nation's 20th coal-related loss this year, after a record low of 22 fatalities in 2005. Caudill, 33, of Viper, died in a roof-fall accident at 8:30 a.m. inside Perry County Coal Corp.'s HZ4-1 mine at Jeff, said Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the state Office of Mine Safety and Licensing. Caudill, a roof bolter, was helping two other miners knock down a concrete block wall with a mining scoop when a large rock -- 14 feet long, 31/2 feet wide and 9 inches thick -- fell and struck him in the back of the head while he was bent over, Wolfe said. The mine's roof had been inspected most recently on Jan. 30. No violations were found.


Maintenance worker at Six Flags presumed drowned

GA - A maintenance worker at Six Flags died Monday afternoon after he and another contract employee fell into a pond while painting the Ninja roller coaster, authorities said. In a press release, Six Flags spokesman Jim Taylor said that about 3:15 p.m. a 25-year-old man who worked for an outside contractor fell when a rail on the pontoon boat he was working in came loose. The boat, which belonged to the outside contractor, was being used to paint the underside of the ride. When the worker was removed from the water he was non-responsive, Taylor said. The man remained submerged for almost 30 minutes before a rescue crew could pull him from the water, said Cobb fire Lt. Dan Dupree. The other worker was hospitalized with minor injuries. Neither man was identified. Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were called to the scene. Six Flags Over Georgia is closed for winter. The park reopens March


School bus collision leaves Tohono O'odham ranger dead

AZ - A Tohono O'odham Police Department ranger was killed in a collision with a school bus on his way to work in Sells on Monday morning. Jerome L. Lewis, 34, was killed instantly, said Officer Jim Oien, an Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman. The crash happened around 6 a.m. at Sandario Road and Ajo Highway. The driver of the Altar Valley School District bus was eastbound on Ajo and was turning left onto Sandario, Oien said.


Worker killed in accident at steel company scrap yard

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A piece of cut steel fell onto a man working in a Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. scrap yard and killed him, the company said. Stephen Zamana, 56, of Steubenville, was using a torch to cut scrap when it appears a piece of metal fell back on him Sunday morning, said Jim Kosowski, spokesman for the Wheeling, W.Va., based-company. Zamana was pronounced dead at Trinity West Medical Center in Steubenville, in eastern Ohio near the West Virginia line. The company will investigate and officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were expected to visit the site, Kosowski said


Man burned at Morganton plant later dies

NC - A man burned in the Jan. 31 explosion at a Morganton chemical plant died early last Sunday from his injuries, the first fatality from the blast that reverberated for miles. Curtis Brackett, known to many as Butch, died at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The 55-year-old had been treated for severe burns there since the explosion at Synthron Inc., a paint additive manufacturer. An out-of-control chemical reaction likely caused explosion, which left one dead and 14 injured, federal investigators said Tuesday. Synthron employees were making paint additive in a 1,500-gallon reactor shortly before the explosion, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Witness accounts support the idea that the reaction went out of control, resulting in a pressure increase and the release of flammable vapor, according to board spokesman Daniel Horowitz and a news release.


Roofer dies after taking 40-foot fall: Leominster man is killed at condo in Marlborough

MARLBOROUGH, MA -- A Leominster man was killed yesterday after he fell nearly 40 feet from a condominium building while roofing with three other workers, authorities said. James Stacy, 40, of 180 Johnson St., was killed instantly, police said, after falling more than three stories from the Spring Hill Condominium building at 35 High St., according to Police Sgt. Thomas Bryant. Bryant said police received a 911 call around 9:15 a.m. reporting that a man had fallen from the building onto the concrete parking lot below. Stacy was pronounced dead at the scene from extensive head injuries, police said. According to one of the co-workers and witnesses, Stacy was tearing off patches of the existing roof moments before he fell, Bryant said.


Bell man is killed in Jonesville accident

A Bell man was killed in a tree-clearing accident Friday near Jonesville after a large log was dropped on him, according to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. The 25-year-old man, whose name was being withheld because his family had not yet been notified, was an employee of Ridgeway Tree Removal, which was contracted by Watson Construction to clear trees at 12400 Newberry Road at the Villages of West End, Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Keith Faulk said. The man was trimming and topping logs with a chain saw and didn't hear an approaching skidder tractor that was pulling logs and dropping them into a pile, Faulk said. The driver of the tractor did not see the man and dropped a log, which pinned the man and caused fatal injuries, Faulk said. The man was flown to Shands at the University of Florida, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, Faulk said. Deputies believe the incident was accidental and do not suspect foul play. Officials from the Occupational and Safety and Health Administration are investigating.


New Braunfels man killed in work accident

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas Federal regulators are investigating the death of a New Braunfels man who fell into an industrial mixer at a food plant. Police say 22-year-old Rolando Rico-Barron fell into an electric mixer yesterday as he was cleaning at Custom Ingredients. The surface of the mixer was wet, and Rico-Barron apparently slipped. Police say Rico-Barron was alone when the accident occurred, but a video recorder caught the accident on tape.


Police officer killed by Massachusetts fugitive remembered

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. -- In a sea of blue and gray, police officers packed a church hall Friday to honor a veteran patrolman slain by a teenager who had fled halfway across the country after attacking patrons of a New Bedford, Mass., gay bar with a hatchet and a gun. Police officer James W. "Jim" Sell was remembered as a warrior for good who died while trying to stop evil. Police officers, sheriff's deputies and state troopers from Arkansas, Massachusetts and Missouri filled East Side Baptist Church to honor Sell, who died Feb. 4 not knowing he had pulled over a fugitive authorities feared would meet a violent end. "As police officers, we all know that there's a chance this could happen to us," Gassville Police Chief Tim Mayfield told a crowd of 900 or so. "For myself and my department, it became real." Shot


Healthcare Worker Killed In Hampton Update!

VA - A health care worker is dead and neighbors say the man who killed her is the very person she helped care for. Hampton Police say around six-thirty Thursday night Carmen Miles, 41, died from several gun shot wounds to the chest. The shooting happened inside an apartment. Your NewsChannel Three has learned the victim is a health care provider assisting a man confined to a wheel chair. Police say that man is a suspect in her death. But they're not saying what led up to the shooting.


Woman Killed by Bulldozer in Indian Head

MD - Charles County Sheriff's officers responded to a construction site on Hunters Brooke Drive in Indian Head for the report of an injured worker. Investigation revealed Gladys Morales-Estrada, 34, of Waldorf was operating a small bulldozer when she apparently activated a control of the bucket, crushing her. Other construction workers quickly summoned help and attempted first aid. Morales-Estrada died at the scene. The Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office responded to the scene to conduct an investigation. Det. J. Elliott is handing the Sheriff's Office investigation. There is no indication of foul play.


Bull tramples farmer to death

LaGRANGE, Ind. -- A farmer was trampled to death by a bull, the LaGrange County coroner said. Gene A. Hart, 58, was found injured Tuesday night by his brother in the bull's pen on the farm near LaGrange, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. By the time paramedics arrived, Hart had died.Coroner Bruce Coney said Hart had died of blunt-force trauma to the body "consistent with being trampled by a bull."


Woman killed in Henrico car crash

VA - A woman was killed this morning when the Veteran's Cab she was driving apparently crossed the center line of state Route 5 in Henrico County and collided head-on with another car. The victim's name was not immediately released. The driver of the second vehicle, a man, was taken to VCU Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, police said.


No cause found yet in Thruway crash that killed trucker, Rochester family

NY - State police said yesterday that they still were not sure why a truck driver lost control of his tractor-trailer on the New York State Thruway and caused an accident in which he and a family of three were killed Tuesday. "There was nothing apparently medically wrong with him prior to the impact," state police Investigator Ricky Peets said of the 63-year-old truck driver, Andrew McKiver. McKiver was on his way back from hauling tires to the Catskills when his southbound truck hit a metal guardrail in Harriman and then passed through an opening meant for U-turns before slamming into a sport utility vehicle headed north.


Elevator worker plummets to his death

BEAUMONT - An elevator maintenance worker fell 10 floors to his death Wednesday while doing an inspection in a high-rise office building. Keith Scott Axtell, 36, was inspecting an elevator about 10:20 a.m. in the Bank of America building on Calder at 10th Street when he somehow lost his footing, Beaumont Police Department spokeswoman Officer Crystal Holmes said.


Masonry worker falls 12 stories to his death

YONKERS — A 41-year-old construction worker who was doing masonry work from a scaffold without a harness on the 12th floor of an apartment building plunged to his death yesterday afternoon, police said. Wilson Acevedo of 148 Cortlandt St., Sleepy Hollow, died at the scene after the fall, said Detective Lt. Thomas Cleary of the Major Case Squad. He landed atop a scaffold at the first floor of the building at 385 McLean Ave. City detectives, Building Department officials and inspectors from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were investigating the death, Cleary said. The accident occurred just before 3 p.m. when bricks fell off the building and apparently struck the workman, knocking him off the scaffold. "As he was removing bricks, a section fell off that apparently knocked him off," Cleary said. Acevedo plunged to his death as several co-workers were on another section of the building, lowering themselves to the ground. Two brothers who live nearby, James and Peter Garcia, witnessed the fall.


Burlington Twp. firefighter dies in house fire

BURLINGTON TWP., NJ -- A township firefighter died this morning while trying to rescue his father from a blaze that broke out at their home. Edward Marbet, 31, got his fiancee out of the home, at 25 Walnut Dr., according to a police lieutenant at the scene. Marbet went back inside the home to look for his father, who in the meantime had gone out a back door of the bi-level home, and Marbet became trapped, said Lt. Wayne Maver. When firefighters arrived at the home, heavy smoke and flames were shooting out of the home's front windows. Marbet's financee is pregnant, according to three neighbors who had gathered at the scene. Marbet was a second lieutenant at Station 301, according to the department's Web site. He was also a former township police dispatcher, Maver said.


Local man killed by train late friday night

WA - A 50-year-old Cheney man was killed late Friday night when he was hit by a train in downtown Cheney. According to police, evidence indicates it was a suicide. The man, identified as a local resident, was struck by a train heading eastbound on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks at around midnight, Friday, between H and I Streets behind The Cheney Grain Company. Cheney police and fire crews responded to the scene after a BNSF employee notified them that the train had hit a person. According to the medical examiner the man was dead on arrival. Police say the evidence points to a possible suicide. One witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, “Police were picking up pieces and putting them into a white bag. We all knew what had happened but weren’t really sure.”


Truck driver killed crossing street

LAWRENCEVILLE — A truck driver was struck and killed Monday morning while attempting to cross a street in Lawrenceville. Authorities said Larry Gunner, 49, of Kannapolis, N.C., was making a scheduled stop on Industrial Park Drive at Industrial Park Circle at 6 a.m. when the accident occurred. As Gunner got out of his truck and began walking across the street, a 1990 Acura Integra slammed into him, said Officer C. Ralston of the Lawrenceville Police Department. Gunner was thrown clear of the car and died at the scene. Police believe the area was poorly lit before sunrise. Gunner was also reportedly wearing dark clothing. The driver of the Acura, 35-year-old Alfredo Gonzalez of Norcross, was cited for not having a license. He was not found to be at fault in the accident and will not face charges, Ralston said.


Farmer found dead after auger accident

HUGO, Minn. - A farmer was found dead near his corn picker Thursday, after his coat apparently got caught on the auger and pulled him in, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said. Authorities haven't determined whether Peter J. Leroux, 27, was strangled or died of exposure in the subzero windchill Thursday afternoon, said Sheriff's Cmdr. Scott Malinosky. An autopsy is being done to find out the cause of the death. A neighbor called authorities around 7 p.m., after seeing Leroux on his knees near the auger with his parka taut around his neck, Malinosky said. His tractor was running and he had apparently been there a few hours, Malinosky said.


Accident takes life of farmer, tree-trimming business owner

MS - Bob Henderson, farmer and owner of a tree-trimming business, died this morning while working on his farm in Carroll County Henderson was working with a tree loading machine. Details about the accident are unclear, said Bobbye Gale Makamson, his sister-in-law. The 46-year-old was alone at the time of the accident. A worker found him and called an ambulance. The ambulance crew was unsuccessful in reviving him, Makamson said. She is unsure when the accident occurred, but Makamson received a call at work about 8:30 a.m. "I went out to the farm as soon as I found out." Attempts to contact Carroll County Coroner Ken Strachan this morning were unsuccessful. News of the accident swept through Greenwood this morning. It came as a blow to Leflore County Chancery Clerk Sam Abraham. "Bob was a gentle fellow and as good a guy as I've ever met," Abraham said. "The community is going to miss him. He was tough but a hard worker." Henderson was always generous with his time and talent, particularly when it came to trimming the magnolia trees around the courthouse.


Dentists Killed While At Work

TX - Two El Paso men were arrested in connection with the latest double murder in Juarez. The shooting happened late Thursday night inside a Juarez dentist office. The victims were both dentists; one is also a former police officer. A third man was also severely injured. Carlos Pacheco Ramirez and Roberto Quezada Hernandez were arrested Thursday night inside a Juarez hotel by federal police. They are now waiting for word from U.S. authorities on the men's criminal background. The motive appears to be the result of a drug debt.


Electrical accident killed man - Handyman found dead under Jackson home he was renovating

MS - A handyman was found dead Friday morning under a west Jackson home after not returning from a job Thursday night. Jeffrey Abshire, 40, of Star was electrocuted while renovating a house on Galvez Street, Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said. His death was ruled an accident and an autopsy will not be performed, she said. Home owner Michael Riggs of Brandon said he met Abshire in September and had hired him to do occasional work at some of his other properties. "He worked for himself," Riggs said. "He seemed pretty good." Riggs hired Abshire again this week to get the vacant house at 160 Galvez St. ready for tenants who were about to move in. But when Abshire did not show up for work Wednesday, Riggs said he didn't expect him to be at the house for the rest of the week. Riggs said he received a call early Friday from Abshire's wife, who said her husband had not returned home from working on the house Thursday night. He then drove to the house, where he found Abshire, and called police at 8:15 a.m. Police said they believe Abshire accidentally pinched a live wire with a jack while he was working on the home's foundation. He was last known to be alive Thursday afternoon, Grisham-Stewart said. "It was just kind of a freak thing," Riggs said.


Polk man killed while repairing helicopter at executive airport - The mechanic was doing work on the aircraft on the ground when the accident occurred.

FL - A Davenport man was killed Friday at Orlando Executive Airport while performing maintenance on a helicopter, authorities said. Kevin M. Connolly, 33, was servicing the aircraft while it was on the ground about 3:30 p.m. when a rotor broke loose and struck him, said Kathleen Bergen, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. The rotor blade struck Connolly "in the neck area," said Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones, a department spokeswoman. Jones said she did not have more details on the accident. "It's a very, very sad situation," she said. Police crime-scene technicians and investigators responded to the scene, which is standard department procedure


Funeral Services Scheduled for Deputy Killed

WI - The Eau Claire County Sheriff's Department and Eau Claire Police Department will serve jointly as an honor guard for the funeral of a deputy killed Thursday. Sixty-two-year-old Stephen Hahn was on transport duty in Jackson County when he and another deputy were involved in a three vehicle crash. Hahn also spent three decades with the Eau Claire Police Department."I came on in 1980 when Steve was on the road. It's always sad to lose someone in the family, the police family," says Officer Dewey Jasper. "Steve particularly as a road supervisor brought his own energy to the job. I enjoyed beginning my career in Eau Claire working with Steve."Deputy Chief Gary Foster worked two decades with Hahn."Steve had a sense of humor that could be taken one of two ways and if you didn't know him, you probably were wondering where he was coming from but if you got to know him, you understood that he was teasing," says Foster. "We are stand-ready to honor Steve in his capacity in both the police department and the sheriffs department."


Tree snaps, crushing truck, killing driver

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Deadly winds that swept through the area Friday left a swath of downed trees and power outages and killed a DOT worker who died when a pine tree crushed the truck he was driving in the Saratoga Spa State Park. The fatality occurred at 11:45 a.m. when George H. Green Jr. of Dyer Switch Road was driving on the Avenue of the Pines through the state park near the Executive Golf Course, across from the Gideon Putnam Hotel. A 2-foot-wide pine tree snapped off about 15 feet above the ground and crushed the cab of his state Department of Transportation pickup.Green, 53, died instantly, police said.


Farmer drowned trying to save calf

IN - A 71-year-old Indiana County farmer drowned Wednesday while trying to rescue a calf that had walked onto an ice-covered pond. Kenneth Vaughn Brady, of 246 Brady Road, Armstrong Township, was recovered from the pond and pronounced dead at the scene at 10:30 p.m. by Coroner Michael Baker. State police said Brady's family called 911 late Wednesday afternoon when he failed to arrive home and his tractor was discovered next to the pond

Rollover of lift kills worker

MI - A 46-year-old employee of NSK Corp.'s bearing plant in Pittsfield Township was killed early today when he was crushed by the lift equipment he was operating, authorities said. The Tecumseh man, whose name has not been released, was driving a lift at the plant in the 5400 block of South State Road around 2 a.m., reports said. The lift rolled off a loading dock, causing the vehicle to roll over and pin the man underneath, police said. Sgt. John Belknap said no other employees witnessed the accident. He said another employee discovered the overturned lift with the man beneath it. Police, firefighters and paramedics arrived, and the employee was pronounced dead at the scene.


Employee Killed When Container Ruptures At Weapons Station - Pressurized Container Ruptures At Seal Beach Station

SEAL BEACH, Calif. -- A civilian employee transferring nitrogen from a pressurized container to a test chamber at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was killed Thursday when the container ruptured, a base official said. The man was working with two other men in the back of an industrial building on the Seal Beach Boulevard base when the accident occurred around 10:40 a.m., said spokesman Greg Smith. He was filling a test chamber with compressed nitrogen gas, which is used to calibrate submarine depth gauges, the base spokesman said. One of the cylindrical containers was 5 feet high and less than a foot in circumference and the other was 2 feet high and 1 1/2 feet around, Smith said. Nitrogen is an inert gas that is not flammable, nor is it poisonous, Smith said. The employee, whose name was withheld pending notification of next-of-kin, was pronounced dead at the scene, Smith said. No one else was injured.


FATAL ACCIDENT IN BOWIE

The semi truck driver killed in a fiery accident in Bowie last night has been identified. It happened around 8:30pm at the Highway 59 exit when an 18 wheeler slammed into a bridge and exploded into flames. The driver has been identified as 33-year-old Daniel Allen of Lawton. The cab of the truck was destroyed in the fire. Investigators say he was carrying material used in tire manufacturing. The Highway 59 bridge was closed until debris was cleared from the area. TXDOT has inspected the bridge for any structural damage.


Lackland officer dies during swim course

An officer with the 342nd Training Squadron at Lackland AFB died Wednesday afternoon while taking part in swimming activities, base officials said. The officer, who is not being identified until his family is notified, was participating in the Combat Rescue Officers Course when he died, Lackland spokeswoman Adelina Carrillo said. He was taken to Wilford Hall Medical Center and pronounced dead at 1:55 p.m. The cause of death was not available, Carrillo said, adding that Air Force officials are investigating the incident.

Logging accident kills campground owner

TOWN OF NORRIE — The longtime owner of a popular campground in rural Marathon County died Monday in a logging accident on his property. Kenneth Thiermann was clearing a campsite at the Wildlife Refuge campground when he was apparently unable to avoid a falling tree. He suffered extensive head injuries and likely was killed almost instantly, according to a Marathon County Sheriff's Department report. An employee found him later that evening. Thiermann, 69, owned and operated the campground and an adjacent bar in the town of Norrie for the past 25 years. A Milwaukee native, he worked for the Glendale Department of Public Works until he retired in 1994.


31-year-old oil worker falls from derrick, dies

IL - A 31-year-old man died Saturday night after falling 100 feet from an oil field derrick about 60 miles north of Van Horn, officials said. Robert Brian Holholman died in what Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo called the area's first industrial accident death. Holholman worked for an oil company named Riata, Carrillo said. How Holholman fell is under investigation


CONCRETE TRUCK TIPS, KILLS 20-YEAR-OLD WORKER

CA - A 20-year-old construction worker was killed Friday morning after the arm of a concrete-pumping truck collapsed while pouring, Murrieta police said. The accident occurred at about 10:30 a.m. when Jairo Heredia, whose address is listed in Fawnskin, was pinned beneath the concrete-pumping boom. Three other workers who were not identified also suffered moderate to minor injuries, including a broken leg, said police Sgt. Bob Landwehr. Authorities did not release the names of the victims Friday afternoon because they were waiting to notify family members. The construction crews were pouring concrete at a rural, unfinished housing development along Meadowlark Ridge in Murrieta when the truck tipped forward onto its front wheels.


Worker crushed by loader bucket

FL - Henry Langley paid $50 for a broken-down red Nissan pickup truck and rebuilt the engine. Friends called him "Junior," and they knew him as the guy who could fix anything. Langley, 40, died Thursday morning while doing what he knew best. He was crushed when a John Deere front-end loader's 1,000-pound bucket dropped as he lay beneath it making repairs, said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy. Investigators aren't sure exactly what time the incident happened. But Langley arrived at the leased property of Bedrock Pavers, at W Tyson and S Manhattan avenues, at 8:30 a.m. and started fixing the loader, which had a hydraulic leak. Bedrock owner John T. Lazzara, 45, wanted Langley to fix the loader so workers could move debris from the site, which came under fire recently for code problems, McElroy said.

Semi crashes into restaurant; driver dead

HAMMOND, IN - The driver of a semitrailer was pronounced dead after the truck crashed into a Chinese restaurant early today. The Illinois-based truck was driving south-southeast sometime before 6 a.m. when its cab crashed into the front of King Chop Suey, 1730 Indianapolis Blvd., near the intersection of Indianapolis and Myrtle Avenue. The identity of the driver was not immediately available, nor was it clear this morning if the driver died before or after crashing. For the full story, see Saturday's editions of The Times.


Cab driver may have been slain for money

GA - Fulton County police say robbery may have been the motive for the Friday night killing of a cab driver near College Park. Police Cpl. Gary Syblis said the driver for Diamonds Cab Co. died of gunshot wounds to the back of the head sometime before 10:20 p.m. Friday, which is the time police were summoned to a reported auto accident. Syblis said he did not have an identity for the man, in part because police were unable to locate the man's wallet or identification. Diamonds Cab owner Dee Dukes identified the driver as Michael Burwell of Riverdale, a part-time driver who had been with the company for two to three months.


Worker killed in accident at steel company scrap yard

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A piece of cut steel fell onto a man working in a Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. scrap yard and killed him, the company said. Stephen Zamana, 56, of Steubenville, was using a torch to cut scrap when it appears a piece of metal fell back on him Sunday morning, said Jim Kosowski, spokesman for the Wheeling, W.Va., based-company.


11-story fall kills masonry worker - Sleepy Hollow man, 42, wasn't wearing harness, police say

YONKERS - A 42-year-old construction worker who was doing masonry work from a scaffold without a harness on the 12th floor of an apartment building plunged to his death yesterday afternoon, police said. Wilson Acevedo, 41, of 148 Cortlandt St., Sleepy Hollow, died at the scene after the 11-story fall, said Detective Lt. Thomas Cleary of the Major Case Squad. He landed atop a scaffold at the first floor of the building at 385 McLean Ave. City detectives, Building Department officials and inspectors from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were investigating the death, Cleary said.


Mississippi Firefighter Dies From Injury

MS - The sudden death of a Mississippi firefighter has left a void in an area still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Gary W. Kistler Sr., 65, a career firefighter with Saucier Fire Department, died Sunday, six days after he cut the tip of his finger at a wreck. The cause of death has been listed as septic infection, said Harrison County Fire Marshal George Mixon.


Shot in Case of Mistaken Identity, Officer Dies After 11-Day Ordeal

NY - It is a hard-to-fathom chain of events: a rookie police officer, assaulted at a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx, is shot three times by a fellow officer responding to a 911 call. Given little chance of surviving, the young officer defies the odds and keeps living. For 11 days. Yesterday, at St. Barnabas Hospital, the painful episode reached a sorrowful moment: the officer, Eric Hernandez, died despite intense efforts to save him. After being told that a CAT scan showed he was brain dead, relatives decided to take him off life support machines, a hospital official said.


Worker stabbed to death at packaging plant

A 53-year-old woman was fatally stabbed Monday afternoon as her co-workers at an East Side packaging plant helplessly watched in horror. Police soon issued a murder warrant for the victim's husband, Antonio Cavazos, 45, who was still at large Monday night. Witnesses told investigators that the victim, Lupe Cavazos, and her husband, also known as Anthony Cavazos, worked together at the Lambert Street Packaging plant in the 3400 block of East Commerce Street, police said. "They were arguing," said Steven Dorn, who has worked at the plant for about three months and said he'd often seen the couple quarrel. "This time it went a little too far." Police said they were trying to find Antonio Cavazos on Monday night.


Smokies employee dies in wreck on Newfound Gap

TN - An employee of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was killed when his pickup truck ran off the road, overturned and landed in a river, park officials said Tuesday. Arnold V. Kovin Jr., 54, of Cullowhee, N.C., was driving from the park headquarters here to his duty station at the Oconaluftee Maintenance Area near Cherokee, N.C., when the accident happened Monday afternoon. Kovin was the park's fleet management specialist and had worked in the Smokies since 2002. Witnesses said Kovin's truck was traveling south on Newfound Gap Road when it drifted into the other lane and off the road and dropped about 10 to 15 feet into the Oconaluftee River.


Slain officer is 17th Southern Nevada law enforcement officer to die on duty since 1933

CA - Las Vegas police Sgt. Henry Prendes is the 17th Southern Nevada law enforcement officer to die on duty in the past three-quarters of a century. Before Prendes' death on Wednesday, the most recent on-duty Southern Nevada officer to be fatally shot was North Las Vegas police officer Raul Elizondo. Elizondo, 27, a three-year veteran of the department named "Officer of the Year" three months prior to his death, was on a routine patrol at dawn Jan. 30, 1995, when he saw a man in the street screaming.


Cops name a suspect; D.A. asks public's help in Ardmore slaying

PA - JUST BEFORE Jacuqin Byrd's alleged fateful encounter with murder victim Sarah Boone at an Ardmore catering office last week, he stopped at a nearby business where he was a familiar face. "He was friendly, same as always," said Ken McVey, owner of Musicians Rental Services, Inc., who's known the 27-year-old Byrd for a couple of years. He said Byrd made a partial credit-card payment on a piece of disc-jockeying equipment that he'd rented and then damaged. "He went off in a good mood," said McVey. Shortly afterward, Boone, 24, was killed in a bloody knife attack in the basement of Cricket Catering. Authorities now say Byrd is the only suspect in the slaying, although he has not been charged with any crime.


Taxi driver slain on extra route - He answered call that led to his death after leaving wife, son at home

West Palm Beach- Cab driver Francisco A. Chavez was driving home Thursday with his wife and child from Church of God in Lake Worth -- after learning services had been canceled -- when he heard the call from dispatch for a pickup nearby. The call wasn't for him but when another driver didn't answer, Chavez, 40, responded to what would be his last ride. He dropped off his wife of six years, Elmie, and his 5-year-old son, Eli, at their home in West Palm Beach and drove to Military Trail and Lake Worth Road to pick up a man at an IHOP restaurant.


Worker dies in Omaha accident

A Lincoln man died Wednesday after a construction accident at 1502 Jones St. in downtown
Omaha. Alfredo Espinoza-Lagurnas, 43, suffered a head injury, officials said. Rescue workers were called to the former Kimball Laundry, which is being converted to lofts, about 8:15 a.m. They took the man to the Creighton University Medical Center, where he died. Espinoza-Lagurnas was working in the basement removing asbestos while standing on a 10-foot ladder, said Matt Timmerman of McGill Asbestos Abatement Co., for which Espinoza-Lagurnas was working.


Kansas State University electrician killed in fall

KS - An electrician at Kansas State University was killed Thursday after falling down an elevator shaft. Paul D. White, a senior electrician with Kansas State University's Housing and Dining Services, was repairing an elevator door in Haymaker Hall, one of the university's residence halls, when he fell, the university said. White was taken to Mercy Regional Health Center where he later died.

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