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Tag: Automotive accidents

  • Drunk driver gets 24 years to life in prison for killing 4 people at July 4 barbecue in NYC park

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    NEW YORK — Halena Herrera can’t cross a street without thinking about the pickup truck that barreled toward her, killing her best friend and three other people, at a New York City park two Fourth of Julys ago.

    Daniel Hyden was drunk at the wheel as the Ford F-150 jumped a curb, bulldozed a chain-link fence and plowed into a group of friends and relatives who were holding a holiday barbecue at Corlears Hook Park in Manhattan. The truck stopped just feet from Herrera, its momentum halted by bodies trapped underneath.

    Judge April A. Newbauer sentenced Hyden on Friday to 24 years to life in prison in the deaths of Ana Morel, 43; Lucille Pinkney, 59; her son, Herman Pinkney, 38; and Herrera’s best friend, Emily Ruiz, 30.

    Seven people were hurt, including Herrera, who was hit in the face by debris.

    “Learning that the only reason I lived was because four other people were dying under the car is still very hard to deal with,” Herrera told reporters after Hyden’s sentencing in state court in Manhattan.

    “I’m glad that at least now there’s some sense of justice,” she said. “It doesn’t help much. It doesn’t bring anything back, but it’s good to have it over with, so I’m happy for that.”

    Diamond Pinkney, Lucille’s son and Herman’s brother, said seeing Hyden sentenced was a “big relief.” The driver, a substance abuse counselor who wrote a 2020 book about coping with addiction, “knew what he did, he knew the possibility he could’ve caused and he did it,” Pinkney said.

    Hyden, 46, from Monmouth, New Jersey, described it as an “accident” in his courtroom apology. He was convicted in November at a non-jury trial of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges.

    “I’m processing how deeply disturbed and deeply hurt I was and still am. And I’m still processing the amount of people I hurt with my actions,” he said, standing in a room packed with victims, relatives of the people he killed and about two-dozen officers.

    Hyden said he had broken his sobriety after his own sister was killed by a drunk driver in New Jersey in 2021. At the time of his crash in July 2024, he was preparing to speak at that driver’s sentencing, he said.

    “What kind of human being would put other human beings through the same thing he was going through?” Hyden asked.

    Herrera scoffed at Hyden’s newfound shame, telling reporters afterward: “He has shown no remorse from the very beginning, so for him to sit there and say that he’s sorry is just — I don’t believe any of it.”

    The crash happened less than an hour after Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security. Police officers who responded to the boat incident testified that they didn’t witness anything warranting arrest, so they walked Hyden to a park bench and left.

    He then got behind the wheel of the pickup truck, prosecutors said, accelerating through a stop sign at 39 mph (63 kph), speeding through a construction zone and zooming over sidewalk at up to 54 mph (87 kph) before reaching the park.

    Hyden was pressing the gas pedal down fully and didn’t hit the brakes until half a second before he hit the crowd, prosecutors said. He then tried to put the vehicle in reverse, but witnesses pulled the keys from the ignition to stop him.

    Hyden’s lawyer suggested he had a foot injury that complicated his driving.

    “While this prison sentence will not reverse the fatalities, injuries, and trauma, I hope this sentencing brings a measure of comfort for those who were impacted by this mass casualty event,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “If you are intoxicated, do not get behind the wheel — it risks the lives of others, and you will be prosecuted.”

    Herrera and Pinkney both said they want Hyden to remain in prison for the rest of his life so he does not have a chance to hurt anyone else.

    Herrera, who is studying to be a therapist, said she has had bouts of depression and struggles with post-traumatic stress — the horror of that night infecting her daily activities. But, she said, she has to stay strong for her 7-year-old son.

    “Every day, I’m worried that something else can happen,” Herrera said. “You know of it — you know that death happens, you know that accidents happen and things happen. But to live it is a different thing.”

    “So, now it’s like: Am I going to get hit by a car crossing the street? Is something going to happen to me?”

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  • California delays revoking 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses until March after immigrants sue

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    A week after immigrant groups filed a lawsuit, California said Tuesday it will delay the revocations of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses until March to allow more time to ensure that truckers and bus drivers who legally qualify for the licenses can keep them.

    But U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the state may lose $160 million if it doesn’t meet a Jan. 5 deadline to revoke the licenses. He already withheld $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers.

    California only sent out notices to invalidate the licenses after Duffy pressured the state to make sure immigrants who are in the country illegally aren’t granted the licenses. An audit found problems like licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant’s authorization to be in the country expired or licenses where the state couldn’t prove it checked a driver’s immigration status.

    “California does NOT have an ‘extension’ to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads,” Duffy posted on the social platform X.

    The Transportation Department has been prioritizing the issue ever since a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people in August.

    California officials said they are working to make sure the federal Transportation Department is satisfied with the reforms they have put in place. The state had planned to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses in mid-December, but the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration blocked that.

    “Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move, and our communities don’t stay connected without them,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon.

    The Sikh Coalition, a national group defending the civil rights of Sikhs, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the California drivers. They said immigrant truck drivers were being unfairly targeted. The driver in the Florida crash and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October are both Sikhs.

    Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but these non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. The Transportation Department also proposed new restrictions that would severely limit which noncitizens could get a license, but a court put the new rules on hold.

    Mumeeth Kaur, the legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said this delay “is an important step towards alleviating the immediate threat that these drivers are facing to their lives and livelihoods.”

    Duffy previously threatened to withhold millions of dollars in federal funding from California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota after audits found significant problems under the existing rules like commercial licenses being valid long after an immigrant truck driver’s work permit expired. He dropped the threat to withhold $160 million from California after the state said it would revoke the licenses because the state was complying.

    Trucking trade groups have praised the effort to get unqualified drivers who shouldn’t have licenses or can’t speak English off the road. They also applauded the Transportation Department’s moves to go after questionable commercial driver’s license schools.

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  • Problems with commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants found in 8 states so far

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    The federal government’s crackdown on commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants has found problems in eight states so far in the wake of several deadly crashes.

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has publicly threatened to withhold millions in federal money from California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and now New York after investigations found problems such as licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant’s legal status expired. But the department quietly also sent letters detailing similar concerns to Texas, South Dakota, Colorado and Washington during the government shutdown after briefly mentioning those states in September.

    Concerns about immigrant truck drivers gained attention after a tractor-trailer driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused an August crash in Florida that killed three people. A fiery California crash that also killed three people in October and involved a truck driver in the country illegally added to the worries.

    Duffy proposed new restrictions in September that would severely limit which noncitizens could get a license to drive a semi or a bus, but a court has put the new rules on hold.

    In addition, the Trump administration has been seeking to enforce existing English language requirements for truckers since the summer. As of October, about 9,500 truck drivers have been pulled off the road nationwide for failing to demonstrate English proficiency during traffic stops or inspections.

    Here’s a summary of what has happened so far:

    The Transportation Department focused first on California because the driver in the Florida crash got a license there. He also went to California after the crash and had to be extradited to face charges.

    California fought back after Duffy threatened to pull $160 million from the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom sparred with Duffy in statements and social media posts defending the state’s practices by saying California officials had verified the immigration status of all these drivers through federal databases, as required.

    But after that back-and-forth, California revoked 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses last month after confirming problems with them. That number has since grown to 21,000. So the Transportation Department hasn’t pulled that funding.

    But Duffy did revoke a separate $40 million in federal funding because he said California is the only state not enforcing English language requirements for truckers.

    The federal government might withhold nearly $75 million from Pennsylvania if it is not satisfied with the actions the state takes.

    The Transportation Department said its audit found a couple of licenses out of 150 it reviewed were valid after the driver’s lawful presence in the country ended. In four other cases, the federal government said Pennsylvania gave no evidence it had required noncitizens to provide legitimate proof they were legally in the country at the time they got the license.

    As it has done in all these states, the Transportation Department ordered Pennsylvania to stop issuing commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants until it completed a full review to ensure all the licenses it has issued remain valid and revoke any licenses that aren’t.

    The federal government said that approximately 12,400 noncitizen drivers hold an unexpired commercial learner’s permit or commercial driver’s license issued by Pennsylvania.

    Duffy threatened to withhold $30.4 million from Minnesota if that state doesn’t address shortcomings in its commercial driver’s license program and revoke any licenses that never should have been issued.

    The Transportation Department found some licenses that were valid beyond a driver’s work permit and some where the state never verified a driver’s immigration status.

    The head of Minnesota’s Department of Driver and Vehicle Services, Pong Xiong, said the state found a number of administrative issues in the 2,117 non-domiciled commercial licenses the state has issued and took action, including cancelling some licenses. Xiong said the federal audit largely just confirmed the issues Minnesota had already found and corrected.

    The state planned to work with federal officials to resolve any remaining questions.

    Duffy highlighted concerns about the commercial licenses New York has issued to noncitizens Friday.

    Federal investigators found that more than half of the 200 licenses they reviewed in New York were issued improperly with many of them defaulting to be valid for eight years regardless of when an immigrant’s work permit expires. And he said the state could not prove it had verified these drivers’ immigration status for the 32,000 active non-domiciled commercial licenses it has issued. Plus, investigators found some examples of New York issuing licenses even when applicants’ work authorizations were already expired.

    “New York must act immediately to comprehensively audit its CDL program and revoke every single illegally issued licenses,” said Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

    State DMV spokesperson Walter McClure defended the state’s practices and said New York has been following all the federal rules for this kind of commercial license.

    Nearly half of the 123 licenses investigators reviewed in Texas were flawed, so the Transportation Department threatened to withhold $182 million if the state doesn’t reform its licensing programs and invalidate any flawed licenses.

    A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that “public safety is the Governor’s top priority, and we must ensure that truckers can navigate Texas roadways safely and efficiently. To support this mission, Governor Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to strictly enforce English language proficiency requirements and to stop issuing intrastate commercial driver’s licenses to drivers who do not meet those standards.”

    Investigators found three commercial licenses the state issued that were valid longer than they should have been. South Dakota also issues several licenses to Canadian citizens who aren’t eligible to get one.

    One problematic practice investigators found as they reviewed 51 South Dakota licenses was that the state routinely issues temporary paper licenses that are valid for one year regardless of the immigration status of a driver.

    South Dakota officials didn’t immediately respond Friday to the concerns. The state could lose $13.25 million.

    Roughly 22% of the 99 licenses that were reviewed in Colorado violated federal requirements. That raises questions about the 1,848 active non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses in the state.

    Investigators discovered a glitch in Colorado’s computer system that will revert to a license valid for four years when a worker has to do multiple searches in a federal immigration database. Unless the worker is vigilant, some of those extended licenses sneak through.

    Eighteen Mexican citizens who weren’t eligible were also issued commercial licenses.

    Jennifer Giambi, a spokesperson for the Colorado DMV, said the state is in the middle of auditing its licensing program to check for any additional problems, and that audit should be done by January. No new licenses are being issued in the program right now.

    The state could lose $31.35 million if the Transportation Department isn’t satisfied with their response.

    Investigators only found problems in about 10% of the 125 licenses they reviewed in Washington, but they were alarmed to learn that an internal state review discovered 685 immigrant drivers who were issued regular commercial licenses instead of the non-domiciled ones they should have received. The Transportation Department said that state officials often accepted the wrong documents in those cases.

    Washington officials told the AP they couldn’t immediately respond Friday while the state is grappling with widespread flooding. But earlier this week, a state Department of Licensing spokesperson, Nathan Olson, said in an email to the Seattle Times that the errors had been addressed and Washington is working to improve its system and procedures.

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  • Germany’s Christmas markets open with festive cheer and tight security

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    BERLIN (AP) — Traditional Christmas markets were opening across Germany on Monday, drawing revelers to their wooden stands with mulled wine, grilled sausages, potato pancakes or caramelized apples.

    Security has been stepped up, with memories of two deadly attacks on Christmas markets still fresh for many Germans.

    In Berlin, the famous market at the city’s Gedächtniskirche church opened with service open to the public on Monday morning. Other openings included the Christmas markets at the Rotes Rathaus city hall, Gendarmenmarkt and Charlottenburg Palace.

    Christmas markets are an annual tradition that Germans have cherished since the Middle Ages — and successfully exported to much of the Western world. Vendors sell not only snacks and drinks but also handmade candles, wool hats, gloves and shiny Christmas stars in all colors and shapes. Children enjoy rides on chain carousels, Ferris wheels and skating on ice rinks.

    Security is an issue at all markets across the country.

    Last year, five women and a boy died, and many were injured in a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg on Dec. 20 that lasted just over a minute. The attacker is currently on trial in Magdeburg.

    On Dec. 19, 2016, an attacker plowed through a crowd of Christmas market-goers at Gedächtniskirche church in Berlin with a truck, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more in the German capital. The Muslim militant attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

    In the western city of Cologne, the Christmas market in front of the city’s famous double-domed cathedral was packed with big crowds on Saturday.

    “We sense a very good atmosphere here, so we feel that in these difficult times we are currently experiencing, we can give visitors a little moment of respite here,” said Birgit Grothues, the spokeswoman for the market. “We see many smiling faces under our illuminated tent.”

    Nonetheless, she said that after last year’s attack in Magdeburg, the city created a special security plan for its markets in close cooperation with police. It includes an additional anti-terrorism barrier and private security, she said.

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    Associated Press writer Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

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  • Court blocks new rules limiting which immigrants can get commercial drivers’ licenses

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    The Transportation Department’s new restrictions that would severely limit which immigrants can get commercial driver’s licenses to drive a semitrailer truck or bus have been put on hold by a federal appeals court.

    The court in the District of Columbia ruled Thursday that the rules Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced in September a month after a truck driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people can’t be enforced right now.

    The court said the federal government didn’t follow proper procedure in drafting the rule and failed to “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety.” The court said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s own data shows that immigrants who hold these licenses account for roughly 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses but only about 0.2% of all fatal crashes, the court said.

    Duffy has been pressing this issue in California because the driver in the Florida crash received a license in California, and an audit of that state’s records showed that many immigrants received licenses in California that were valid long after their work permits expired. Earlier this week, California revoked 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses because of that problem.

    Neither Duffy nor California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded immediately Friday to questions about the ruling. Newsom’s office has said the state followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about issuing these licenses to noncitizens.

    Duffy has said the Florida crash, along with fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year, highlighted questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash that killed three people last month involved a truck driver in the country illegally, only adding to the concerns.

    The driver in the Florida crash, Harjinder Singh, appeared before a judge in St. Lucie County, Florida, on Thursday, where his attorneys asked to continue his court proceedings into January as they prepare for trial. Singh has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter.

    The new restrictions on these licenses would only allow immigrants who hold three specific classes of visas to be eligible to get the licenses. States would also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. The licenses would be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner.

    Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2b is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business. But the rules won’t be enforced retroactively, so those 190,000 drivers would be allowed to keep their commercial licenses at least until they come up for renewal.

    Trucking trade groups like the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have supported the new rule. There is a bill in Congress that would enshrine the new restrictions on commercial driver’s licenses in law.

    “For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto our highways, putting professional truckers and the motoring public at risk,” said Todd Spencer, the trucking association’s president.

    Duffy has said that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy has taken action against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The reviews in the other states have been delayed by the government shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten their standards.

    Duffy has revoked $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English language requirements for truckers, and he said earlier this week that he may take another $160 million from the state over these improperly issued licenses if they don’t invalidate every illegal license and address all the concerns.

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    Associated Press writer Kate Payne contributed to this report from Tallahassee, Florida.

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  • Truck driver in fatal Florida crash repeatedly failed driving tests, official says

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    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A commercial truck driver who is charged with killing three people in a deadly crash in Florida in August had failed a commercial driver’s license test 10 times in the span of two months in 2023 in Washington state, before he was ultimately issued a license, according to a senior official in the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

    Florida is using the case of Harjinder Singh, who is accused of being in the country illegally, to urge the nation’s highest court to permanently bar some states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses or CDLs to people who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

    In a separate case, another semitruck driver accused of being in the country illegally was charged with the killings of three people in a crash on a southern California freeway this week, renewing federal officials’ criticisms of immigrant drivers and concerns about who should be able to obtain CDLs.

    Here’s what to know.

    Florida’s investigation of Harjinder Singh has revealed that the trucker failed a written test to receive a CDL in Washington state 10 times between March 10, 2023, and April 5, 2023, a senior official for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier who was briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The official is not authorized to comment publicly about an ongoing investigation and provided the information on the condition of not being identified.

    Singh, who is from India, lived in California and was originally issued a CDL in Washington before California also issued him one. He was carrying a valid California CDL at the time of the crash, according to court filings.

    A spokesperson for Washington’s Department of Licensing said no one was immediately able to respond to questions Friday. In California, all commercial truck drivers must pass a written test but may be allowed to skip the driving test if they have an out-of-state license with equivalent classification, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicle’s website. State officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for more information.

    He is accused of attempting an illegal U-turn from the northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce on Aug. 12. A minivan that was behind Singh’s big rig couldn’t stop and crashed into the truck, killing its driver and two passengers. Singh and a passenger in the truck were not injured.

    Singh is currently being held without bond in the St. Lucie County Jail, not far from where the crash occurred. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 13.

    Florida is now petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its case against the states of California and Washington, and urging the high court to bar states from issuing CDLs to people who are in the country illegally.

    Florida’s petition filed this month argues the Western states have demonstrated “open defiance of federal immigration laws” and a failure to enforce public safety, which Florida is urging the court to declare a “public nuisance.” That’s a type of legal claim that’s typically used to address local concerns like blighted homes, illegal drug-dealing or dangerous animals, but has also been directed at pharmacies for their role in the opioid crisis.

    If the court accepts the case, Florida officials hope it could lead to a new legal precedent for states’ abilities to issue CDLs to people who are not citizens or legal permanent residents. A ruling could also have a downstream effect on how or if conventional driver’s licenses are issued to immigrants, the senior Florida official said.

    In a separate case, Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that killed three people and left four others injured.

    Singh, who also is from India, is accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing the fiery crash. According to the California Highway Patrol, westbound traffic on Interstate 10 near San Bernardino had slowed Tuesday afternoon when a tractor-trailer failed to stop, struck other vehicles and caused a chain-reaction crash.

    Singh, of Yuba City, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 across the southern border, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.

    The U.S. Transportation Department took steps to tighten CDL requirements for noncitizens in September, following a series of fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers.

    This week’s deadly crash in California and the assertion that Jashanpreet Singh entered the country illegally has renewed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s concerns about who should be able to obtain CDLs.

    Duffy and President Donald Trump have been pressing the issue and criticizing California ever since the deadly Florida crash in August.

    Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Duffy said there were “multiple failures” that allowed Harjinder Singh to obtain his commercial driver’s license.

    “The truth is I think we have a lot of abuse in the commercial driver’s license issuing space,” Duffy said. He noted that Singh didn’t speak English and maintained that he couldn’t read road signs.

    “So the question becomes … how in the heck can you ever pass a test for a commercial driver’s license? You can’t do it but for fraud,” Duffy said.

    The new rules announced last month make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

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    Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Video shows dramatic rescue of baby pinned under overturned car in Texas

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    FORT WORTH, Texas — A baby is expected to make a full recovery after being pulled from under a vehicle that had flipped during a crash, authorities said Friday after releasing dramatic video that showed the rescue effort along a busy highway.

    Officers responded to the scene Thursday morning after getting reports that the child and mother had been ejected from the car.

    Body camera footage shared Friday on social media by the Fort Worth Police Department shows an officer running toward the overturned car and beginning to search for the child as a distraught woman can be heard in the background yelling for her baby.

    The officer rallied other motorists who had stopped at the scene to help him lift the car.

    “Under here, we need to move the car,” the officer tells them, saying he thinks the child is pinned underneath.

    “Keep moving, keep moving,” the officer urges them as the car is lifted just enough for him to grab the child’s leg and pull it to safety.

    The child was unresponsive, but one officer said he felt a pulse. They attempted to get the baby to take a breath, with one officer using his fingers to push on the child’s chest. The baby eventually began to make noises and then started to cry.

    Police said both the mother and child were expected to make a full recovery.

    “Although this video may be extremely difficult to watch, it is an important example of the kinds of situations that our police officers may come across while performing their duties,” the department said in its post.

    Police Chief Eddie Garcia in a social media post referred to the child as a “little angel” and praised the officers for their heroism. The department also thanked the citizens who stopped to help with the rescue.

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  • Deadly semitrailer crash in California renews federal criticism of immigrant truck drivers

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    A 21-year-old semitruck driver accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing a fiery crash that killed three people on a southern California freeway is in the country illegally, U.S. Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

    Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that also left four people injured.

    He faces three counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence causing injury, the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office said.

    Singh is scheduled for arraignment Friday. The district attorney’s office said he does not yet have a lawyer.

    Singh, of Yuba City, California, is from India and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 across the southern border, Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.

    That revelation prompted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to restate earlier concerns about who should be able to obtain commercial driver’s licenses. Duffy and President Donald Trump have been pressing the issue and criticizing California ever since a deadly Florida crash in August was caused by an immigrant truck driver the federal government says was in the country illegally.

    The Transportation Department significantly restricted when noncitizens can get commercial driver’s licenses last month.

    Duffy said this week’s crash wouldn’t have happened if Newsom had followed these new rules.

    “These people deserve justice. There will be consequences,” he said in a statement.

    Newsom’s office responded that the federal government approved Singh’s federal employment authorization multiple times and this allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in accordance with federal law.

    California’s Highway Patrol said in a release that traffic westbound on Interstate 10, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) west of San Bernardino, had slowed about 1 p.m. Tuesday when a tractor-trailer failed to stop, struck other vehicles and caused a chain-reaction crash.

    Dashcam video from the tractor-trailer obtained by KABC-TV shows the truck slamming into what appears to be a small, white SUV in the freeway’s center lane. It continued forward, plowing into several other vehicles, including another truck. It then crossed over two lanes before crashing into an already-disabled truck on the freeway’s right shoulder.

    Flames can be seen erupting alongside the tractor-trailer as it crosses the two right lanes.

    California Highway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez says the agency has seen the KABC video and believes it is dashcam video from the truck that caused the crash.

    “This tragedy follows a disturbing pattern of criminal illegal aliens driving commercial vehicles on American roads, directly threatening public safety,” Homeland Security said Thursday in its X post.

    In August, a truck driver made an illegal turn on Florida’s Turnpike, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, and was struck by a minivan. Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene, and the driver died at a hospital.

    Homeland Security has said that truck driver, Harjinder Singh, was in the United States illegally. Florida authorities said he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018.

    Homeland Security said Harjinder Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, which is one of 19 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that issue licenses regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

    The Trump administration has pointed to the Florida crash while sparring with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    In April, Trump issued an executive order saying truckers who don’t read and speak the English language proficiently would be considered unfit for service.

    “A driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period,” Duffy said the following month.

    Under the new Transportation Department rules imposed last month, only noncitizen drivers who have three specific visas are allowed to qualify for commercial licenses. And states will be required to verify their immigration status. Only drivers who hold either an H-2a, H-2B or E-2 visa will qualify. H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, while H-2a is for agricultural workers. E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business

    The licenses will only be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

    On Thursday, Duffy called the California crash “outrageous” in a social media post.

    “This is exactly why I set new restrictions that prohibit ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS from operating trucks,” he wrote on X. “@CAgovernor must join every other state in the U.S. in enforcing these new actions to prevent any more accidents and deaths.”

    Bhupinder Kaur, director of operations for UNITED SIKHS, said the New York-based humanitarian relief nonprofit, is alarmed by what it sees as growing bias involving immigrant drivers.

    It was not immediately clear Thursday afternoon if Jashanpreet Singh is Sikh.

    “Law enforcement and hasty social media posts constantly rush to name, photograph, and expose immigration status, while similar details about non-immigrant drivers remain withheld,” Kaur told The Associated Press in an email Thursday. “The discretion officials cite as ‘privacy’ elsewhere seems to vanish when the driver is an immigrant.”

    Immigrant truckers make up nearly one in five long-haul drivers, Kaur continued, adding that most are fully licensed and law-abiding.

    “Yet they face unequal scrutiny and coverage,” Kaur said. “Selective transparency distorts public understanding and can even influence legal outcomes.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao in Princeton, New Jersey and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.

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  • Hong Kong prepares to reopen runway after crash though it won’t be used regularly

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    HONG KONG — HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong prepared Tuesday to reopen the runway where a cargo aircraft crashed and plunged into the sea the previous day, but said it would remain out of regular use until wreckage from the accident was fully cleared from the water.

    The Boeing 747 flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines flight from Dubai skidded off to the left after landing in the early hours of Monday and collided with a patrol car, causing both the aircraft and the car to plunge into the sea. Two workers in the car were killed. The four crew members on the plane had no apparent injuries.

    Repairs to the runway and damaged fencing have been completed, Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director for airport operations, told Radio Television Hong Kong. He added that that investigators had collected initial evidence at the scene.

    The plane’s cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have not yet been retrieved, Yiu said. The aircraft was being operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai.

    The runway would be put on standby status from noon, meaning it can be used for landings but will not be included in regular flight planning. Yiu said it would remain on standby until the wreckage is fully cleared from the sea.

    Hong Kong authorities were in contact with barge companies for the cleanup but they could not begin removal work while Tropical Storm Fengshen was still affecting the city, he said. Depending on weather, wreckage removal and other work could be completed within a week, Yiu said.

    Investigators were continuing to work to determine the cause of the crash. Yiu said both weather and runway conditions met standards during the incident, while mechanical and human factors were yet to be investigated.

    Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said her bureau hoped the air accident investigation authority would release an initial probe report within a month, the bureau posted on Facebook.

    Monday’s crash marked the second fatal incident for ACT Airlines. In 2017, a Boeing 747 flown by ACT Airlines under the name MyCargo crashed as it prepared to land in fog in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing all four crew on board and 35 people on the ground. ACT Airlines flew that route from Hong Kong on behalf of Turkish Airlines.

    A later report on the crash by Kyrgyz authorities blamed the flight crew for misjudging the plane’s position while landing in poor weather. The crew was tired and had a heated exchange with air-traffic control before the crash, the report said.

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  • LA City Hall evacuated after car crashes into building’s steps

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles’s City Hall was evacuated after a car crashed into the steps of the building on Friday afternoon and the driver was later taken into police custody, officials said.

    About two hours after the crash, the driver could be seen getting out of the car and walking with his arms raised toward a line of police and fire vehicles. He was then handcuffed.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to police. LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on the social platform X that the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad had arrived at the crash site, though she also said the situation had been “safely resolved.”

    She previously said City Hall was being evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.”

    Police responded to reports just after 4 p.m. about a traffic collision, according to Charles Miller, a spokesperson for the LAPD. They then worked to make contact with the driver. The circumstances that led up to the crash were not immediately clear.

    Video taken from news helicopters soon after the crash shows the driver in the front seat and a cardboard sign in the window that reads, “I need ur help” and makes a reference to President Donald Trump.

    “Thank you to all of the brave first responders who safely resolved this situation with compassion and urgency,” Bass said on X.

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  • Parents of woman killed in Tesla crash allege design flaw trapped her in burning car

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    The parents of a college student killed in a Tesla crash say she was trapped in the car as it burst into flames because of a design flaw that made it nearly impossible for her to open the door, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

    The parents of Krysta Tsukahara allege that the company that helped Elon Musk become the world’s richest man knew about the flaw for years and could have moved fast to fix the problem but did not, leaving the 19-year-old arts student trapped amid flames and smoke that eventually killed her.

    Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

    The new legal threat to Tesla filed in Alameda County Superior Court comes just weeks after federal regulators opened an investigation into complaints by Tesla drivers of stuck-door problems. The probe and suit come at a delicate time for the company as it seeks to convince Americans that its cars will soon be safe enough to ride in without anyone in the driver’s seat.

    Tsukahara was in the back of a Cybertruck when the driver who was drunk and had taken drugs smashed into a tree in a suburb of San Francisco, according to the suit. Three of the four people in the car, including the driver, died. A fourth was pulled from the car after a rescuer smashed a window and reached in.

    The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times.

    Tesla doors have been at the center of several crash cases because the battery powering the unlocking mechanism can be destroyed in a fire and the manual releases that override that system are difficult to find.

    The lawsuit follows several others that have claimed various safety problems with Tesla cars. In August, a Florida jury decided that the family of another dead college student, this one killed by a runaway Tesla years ago, should be awarded more than $240 million in damages.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which opened its stuck-door investigation last month, is looking into complaints by drivers that after exiting their cars, they couldn’t open back doors to get their children out and, in some cases, had to break the window to reach them.

    ___

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  • 3 dead and others believed missing after flooding in rural Arizona community

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    GLOBE, Ariz. — Three people have died and others are believed missing after flooding in a rural community in Arizona, officials said Saturday.

    Carl Melford, the Gila County Division of Emergency Management manager, told KPHO-TV that two of the people who died were found in a vehicle and a third person was found elsewhere after flooding on Friday in Globe, a city of about 7,250 people about 88 miles (142 kilometers) east of Phoenix.

    “I grew up here, and I don’t recognize the town that I grew up in right now,” he said.

    Searchers looked for people missing all night, and more help arrived Saturday to continue the search, city officials said on Facebook. They urged people to stay away from the historic downtown of the former mining town because of compromised buildings and hazardous chemicals and debris, including propane tanks swept away in the floodwaters.

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  • Oklahoma school bus crash carrying softball team injures multiple people

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    MINCO, Okla. — A school bus carrying softball team members crashed in Oklahoma, injuring multiple people, school and police officials said.

    The crash happened Monday night on U.S. Highway 152 near Minco in Grady County, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City.

    “This evening, our Minco Softball team was in a serious accident west of Minco,” school district Superintendent Kevin Sims posted online. “Multiple individuals on the bus were severely injured.”

    He said school would be closed Tuesday.

    “Please keep these student-athletes, coaches and their families in your prayers,” he said.

    News reports said the bus rolled over and that some people were ejected.

    The exact number of people on the bus and the number of people injured were not immediately available, a dispatcher for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s Troop G, which covers Grady County, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

    U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma posted online that he and his wife, Cindy, “join all of Oklahoma in praying for our neighbors in Minco tonight.”

    The Minco First Baptist Church in the town of about 1,500 people posted online that the church sanctuary was open “if you would like to come and pray.”

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  • Rudy Giuliani injured in New Hampshire car crash, his spokesperson says

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    Rudy Giuliani is recovering from a fractured vertebrae and other injuries following a car crash in New Hampshire, a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor said Sunday.

    Giuliani’s vehicle was struck from behind while traveling on a highway Saturday evening, according to a statement posted on X by Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security.

    “He sustained injuries but is in good spirits and recovering tremendously,” Ragusa said, adding: “This was not a targeted attack.”

    Giuliani, 81, was taken to a nearby trauma center and was being treated for injuries including “a fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg,” according to Ragusa.

    Prior to the accident, Giuliani had been “flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident” and contacted police assistance on her behalf, Ragusa said. He said in the statement that the subsequent crash was “random and unrelated” to the domestic violence incident.

    Giuliani was in a rental car and “no one knew it was him,” Ragusa also said in the post on X.

    Another Giuliani spokesperson, Ted Goodman, and New Hampshire State Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment and more details about the crash.

    “Thank you to all the people that have reached out since learning the news about my Father,” Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son, wrote in post on X. “Your prayers mean the world.”

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  • Multi-vehicle crash injures 17 and shuts down major interstate in East Texas

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    LINDALE, Texas — A multi-vehicle crash Saturday on an East Texas interstate sent 17 injured people to area hospitals and shut down a major interstate for hours.

    None of the injuries appeared to be life threatening after the crash along Interstate 20 involving two tractor-trailers and six passenger vehicles, Lindale, Texas, Fire Chief Jeremy LaRue said.

    The crash happened about 4 p.m. Saturday near Lindale, which is about 90 miles (144 kilometers) east of Dallas. The westbound lanes of Interstate 20 were still shut down more than two hours after the accident while crews cleaned oil and diesel fuel left on the roadway, LaRue said.

    A message was left Saturday with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which was investigating the cause of the accident.

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  • 21 hospitalized after bus carrying junior high football team crashes near Pittsburgh

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    ECONOMY BOROUGH, Pa. — A bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people on board to the hospital, officials said.

    Twenty-five Aliquippa Junior High students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh.

    Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O’Brien said he didn’t have information on the medical status of those taken to hospitals.

    O’Brien said he understood the bus turned on its side during the crash but came back upright as the students were evacuating the vehicle.

    The police chief said the crash occurred in a tough spot in the road. “It’s on a bad bend,” O’Brien said. “It’s being investigated now to determine what happened.”

    A Facebook page for the Aliquippa Junior High football team said each player was being evaluated and asked for “a thought or prayer for each player or coach that was traveling this morning.”

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  • Brent Hinds, former Mastodon singer-guitarist, dies at 51 in motorcycle crash

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    Brent Hinds, the former singer-guitarist for the Grammy-winning heavy metal band Mastodon, has died in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, the band and authorities said. He was 51.

    Hinds was killed while riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle late Wednesday night when the driver of a BMW SUV failed to yield while making a turn, according to Atlanta police. Hinds was described as “unresponsive” at the scene.

    “We are heartbroken, shocked and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many,” the band said on social media.

    Mastodon had three albums rise into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart and two that topped the Rock Album chart — “Emperor of Sand” in 2017 and “Once More ’round the Sun” in 2014.

    Hinds co-founded Mastodon in 2000 with bassist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor. Mastodon’s third studio album, 2006’s “Blood Mountain,” was their first to reach the Top 40, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard 200.

    Hinds left the band in March 2025. No reason for the departure was given. The band said they had “mutually decided to part ways,” but comments made by Hinds on Instagram indicated a rocky relationship with the members of his former band.

    “We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” the band said at the time.

    Mastodon — which forged ferocious metal, progressive wizardry and sludge rock tendencies — earned six Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 2017 for best metal performance for “Sultan’s Curse” from the album “Emperor of Sand.”

    Rolling Stone magazine listed Mastodon’s 2011 album “The Hunter” among its best off the year, saying the band had “streamlined their molten thrash into a taut thwump that doesn’t pull back one bit on their natural complexity of innate weirdness.”

    Hinds was due to tour Europe later this year with Fiend Without a Face, a band that was once a side project during his years with Mastodon.

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  • Another study points to correlation between helmet use on motorcycles and odds of survival

    Another study points to correlation between helmet use on motorcycles and odds of survival

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    A new study compiling decades of fatal motorcycle crashes is being released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is pushing for stricter state road safety laws.

    The study suggests that 20,000 motorcyclists who died in crashes in the U.S. since the mid-1970s would have survived if stronger helmet laws had been in place, according to the nonprofit group that seeks to reduce the harm from motor vehicle crashes

    The organization said that 22,058 motorcyclists’ lives could have been saved if every state had required all riders to wear helmets from 1976 to 2022. The figure represents 11% of all rider fatalities over those years.

    Only 17 states and the District of Columbia that have such laws in place.

    The IIHS said that more than 6,000 motorcyclists were killed in both 2021 and 2022, the most recent years for which such data is available. The organization says that the death toll could be cut by as much as 10% if more states enacted all-rider helmet laws.

    “We understand that requiring helmets for all riders everywhere would be unpopular with some motorcyclists, but this could save hundreds of lives each year,” said Eric Teoh, IIHS director of statistical services and the author of the paper. “Those aren’t just numbers. They’re friends, parents and children.”

    The rate of helmet use has increased both in places with and without mandatory helmet laws, according to the institute. Yet use rates in states with mandatory helmet laws were generally two to three times as high as in states without them over the study period.

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  • US opens probe into Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ system after crash reports in low visibility and a pedestrian death

    US opens probe into Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ system after crash reports in low visibility and a pedestrian death

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    US opens probe into Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ system after crash reports in low visibility and a pedestrian death

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  • A gang in Haiti has killed more than 20 and injured dozens after raiding a small town, official says

    A gang in Haiti has killed more than 20 and injured dozens after raiding a small town, official says

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Gang members attacked a small town in central Haiti early Thursday, killing more than 20 people, including children, according to a human rights group.

    Another 50 people were injured as the Gran Grif gang burned homes and cars in the town of Pont-Sondé, said Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.

    “A lot of people ran and left the area,” she told Radio Kiskeya.

    A video posted on social media shows a group of people fleeing through the brush, with one woman who was out of breath saying, “Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.” In another video, dozens of people start running through a street after hearing rumors that the gang was approaching.

    Harace and others criticized police in the nearby coastal city of Saint-Marc, saying they did not mobilize to help people being attacked in Pont-Sondé.

    Venson François, a government prosecutor based in Saint-Marc, called the attack a “massacre” in an interview with Radio Caraïbes.

    Dozens of people crowded around a hospital in Saint-Marc where the injured were taken, with one man telling reporters that local authorities are not doing enough to protect people.

    The attack in Pont-Sondé was blamed on the Gran Grif gang. It operates in the central Artibonite region, and experts have described it as one of Haiti’s cruelest gangs. It has gained control of more territory since 2022 under the leadership of Luckson Elan, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department last month.

    In January 2023, the Gran Grif gang was accused of attacking a police station in Liancourt, located near Pont-Sondé, and killing at least six officers. Violence unleashed by the gang also forced the closure of a hospital in February 2023 that serves more than 700,000 people.

    Former Haitian legislator Prophane Victor, who represented the Artibonite department, began arming young men who eventually formed the Gran Grif gang to secure his election and control over the area, according to a U.N. report. The U.S. also sanctioned Victor last month.

    The gang has about 100 members and has been accused of crimes including murder, rape, robberies and kidnappings, according to the report.

    While most of the gang violence is concentrated in the capital of Port-au-Prince, it has spread in recent years to the Artibonite region, where much of Haiti’s food is produced.

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