Archive for November 28th, 2007
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Eleven people were killed and many were injured during Loy Krathong as the festival was marred by accidents with firecrackers, brawls and road deaths.
In Phitsanulok seven villagers, including two elderly people and a four-year-old girl, were hit by a truck on the Phitsanulok-Noen Maprang road while riding a motorcycle with a sidecar to a Loy Krathong festival in Noen Maprang district, police said.
The speeding truck slammed into the rear of the motorcycle, throwing off one woman who was dragged under the truck, witnesses said.
The victim’s krathongs were found scattered around the scene.
In Surin’s Muang district, three young girls were killed in a road accident near an irrigation canal, police said.
The three were hit by a pick-up truck while riding a motorbike home from a Loy Krathong festival. Their motorbike went into the canal and the three were killed on the spot, police said.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
A head constable from the Meghwadi police station died and a police inspector was grievously injured in an accident on the Western Express Highway on Saturday afternoon.
According to the Meghwadi police, Police Inspector Anant Kendle and Head Constable Janardan Waghmare met with the accident after a truck hit them. They were returning from Kandivali after investigations in a case, when they saw a teenager was cycling his way towards them in the wrong direction. According to the police, in their attempt to avoid hitting the teenager, they diverted to their right, but their vehicle skidded while doing so.
A truck — with Venkat Suryawanshi at the wheel — coming from behind hit the two who had by then fallen from their vehicle.
Suryawanshi has been arrested by the Samata Nagar police station for rash driving or riding on a public way, causing death by negligence and causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Life is getting tougher for contractors and labourers working at the Shiradi Ghat section of the Mangalore-Bangalore NH-48. All thanks to mine truck drivers taking the law into their hands.
On Saturday night, the drivers of mine trucks, which entered Shiradi Ghat from Sakleshpur defying the ban, allegedly thrashed the labourers and damaged an excavation machine.
Gokuldas Bhandarkar, a contractor who bagged the deal concreting the double turn and 12 curves (of about 1.8-km stretch), said Manju, a worker from Kalhalli, sustained fracture on his leg after the drivers attacked him.
Asked for the reason for the attack, Bhandarkar said the drivers alleged that the labourers had thrown stones at them. “In reality, it might have been a stray stone flying across from the tyre of the excavator”. The incident occurred at the work site near Rajghat, five km from Maranahalli police station, where 20 labourers were engaged in concrete work. The damage to the machine is put at Rs 80,000.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
There were no injuries when a tractor-trailer truck went off U.S. 412 going south and ran into a Jackson business Friday, according to fire officials.
The building, at 2703 Bells Highway, houses Southeastern Pond Management, a business that stocks ponds with fish.
The accident the 18-wheeler veered off the highway onto an embankment and through a fence before crashing into the warehouse, according to Jackson police Officer Jon Hasz .
The truck cab and half of the trailer were inside the building Friday after it plowed through a brick wall.
“It could have been much worse,” Hasz said. “If the concrete had given way when the truck had come down here, then it would be a whole different story.”
Manager Jeff Slipke said he feels lucky the accident was not worse. The building was empty at the time of the accident since it was Thanksgiving weekend, he said.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The Winston-Salem Fire Department is implementing a plan they say will save time and money, by sending a squad car instead of a fire truck to answer health calls.
The pilot program to replace using fire trucks began two weeks ago, and has already responded to 99 medical calls.
“That’s 99 times a big truck got to stay and be available for a fire call,”
“This (squad car) unit is about $40,000; the fire truck is $400,000. This unit can be staffed with two people; the fire truck with four people,”
The squad car is equipped with the same medical equipment as a fire truck.
The department plans to add two more cars in 2008.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The first vehicle off Hino Motors Manufacturing USA. Inc.’s Williamstown plant was a white truck that already had competing purchase offers from the town of Williamstown and the Wood County Development Authority, said Joe Chronley, the plant’s general manager.
Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota Group, announced in June it would take over the former Walker Systems plant. Company officials said then that they would invest $8.6 million to renovate the building and hoped to have the plant open by mid-November.
Workers have already produced 25 light- and medium-duty trucks as part of their training. Those vehicles will be sold, as will the first official vehicles to roll off the assembly line on Monday, Chronley said.
The plant employs 72 and will start production with two trucks per day, he said. The goal is to increase that to 20 per day. The plant is operating one shift, Monday through Friday.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Construction has begun on a runaway-truck ramp on Avon Mountain that is supposed to address safety problems on Route 44.
A lane on Route 44 may be closed during construction, but traffic will flow in both directions, said Kevin Nursick, a spokesman with the Department of Transportation.
The ramp will be constructed on the west bound side of Route 44 before the Route 10 intersection, the site of two serious runaway truck accidents.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
ACP Traffic, Donaldy Ferguson, is calling on drivers of heavy vehicles and large container trucks to be more careful when driving on the nation’s roadways, especially during the upcoming Christmas rush.
His appeal comes on the heels of Saturday’s smash-up on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Tunapuna, in which a container truck overturned and crushed a car.
“I am not pointing fingers at anyone in that incident on Sunday, as investigators have not yet found out which party or what conditions caused the accident. But we are asking persons who drive heavy vehicles to travel with caution and think about other road users and their fellow citizens, as the number of cars on the road has increased significantly within recent years.”
He said while the police know that container trucks are part of a bigger business system which thrives around this time of year, he is recommending that the big trucks be brought out on weekends and during the night when the roadways are not as crowded.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Glynn County police were hoping that a crane could attempt to remove an overturned concrete truck three days after it ran off a road.
Firefighters placed absorbent pads around the truck Friday at Sea Island Road and Arthur J. Moore Drive to help contain diesel fuel.
But officials were uncertain early Friday when managers of East Coast Concrete, owner of the truck, would have a crane to begin the removal. Police, though, were anticipating limiting traffic at the site at about sunrise Saturday.
The truck, fully loaded with 10 cubic yards of concrete, has been laying on its driver’s side in the marsh since it veered off Sea Island Road.
“There was a minor fuel leak, so we put the absorbent pads around the truck just to be on the safe side,” said Glynn County Deputy Fire Chief Jim Cochran. “When the accident happened, it pushed a lot of dirt around the truck, like a dike, so the fuel can’t go anywhere.”
Cochran said approximately three gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the truck.
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The Interstate 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River will be closed to large trucks starting Wednesday because of the deteriorating condition of the span.
The bridge is safe, but in need of repair and eventual replacement, said Heidi Cote, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
Banning trucks weighing 20 tons or more will help extend the life of the bridge, she said.
The 50-year-old bridge is south of the S curve on I-95 near the landmark Apex building.
Side streets around the bridge were closed Friday and construction equipment and trucks were being stored under the bridge.
Cote said Rhode Island State Police will monitor that stretch of I-95 to ensure that trucks comply.
Trucks headed south from the Attleboro area toward Providence will have to get off at Exit 30 and take Roosevelt Avenue through Central Falls.
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Glynn County police were hoping that a crane could attempt to remove an overturned concrete truck three days after it ran off a road.