ReportWire

Tag: Automotive accidents

  • 8-year-old girl in ‘life-threatening condition’ after deadly school car crash in Wimbledon

    8-year-old girl in ‘life-threatening condition’ after deadly school car crash in Wimbledon

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    LONDON — An 8-year-old girl is in life-threatening condition in a hospital following a car crash at an elementary school in Wimbledon that claimed the life of another girl of the same age, London police said Friday.

    The Metropolitan Police also said a woman in her 40s is in critical condition following the crash Thursday in southwest London.

    A Land Rover crashed through a fence and hit a building at the Study Preparatory School for girls aged between 4 and 11.

    Police said the crash, which occurred while the children were having an end-of-year party in the garden, was not terror-related.

    The Met said a woman arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving has been released on bail pending further investigation until later in the month. She was also taken to a hospital but her life was not in danger, police said. It was unclear whether she was still hospitalized.

    A number of other people, including a 7-month-old girl, were also taken to the hospital but were not in critical condition, police said.

    On Thursday, London’s ambulance service said 16 people, including the girl who died, were treated at the scene for injuries. Ten of them were later hospitalized.

    The Met said that it understands that the school-age children who were injured were pupils at the school and that the injured adults were parents or carers, not staff members.

    “It is difficult to imagine the pain and upset the families of those involved are going through and we will do all we can to support them as our investigation continues,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland, the local police commander for southwest London.

    “This was the largest local policing deployment in southwest London since 2017 and our officers, along with members of the other emergency services, were met with a challenging and traumatic scene,” she said.

    The crash occurred about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is hosting the world-famous Wimbledon tennis tournament. Unlike the grand slam event, the school is located in a fairly remote area surrounded by local parks, horse trails and golf courses.

    Members of the Wimbledon Common Golf Club, which is opposite the site of the crash, held a minute’s silence outside the school gates on Friday afternoon.

    The group stood on the road to pay its respects and laid flowers.

    “It’s just so sad to lose someone so young,” said the club’s chairman, Peter Thompson.

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  • Double-decker bus collision with second bus in Manhattan sends 18 people to hospitals

    Double-decker bus collision with second bus in Manhattan sends 18 people to hospitals

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    Authorities say a crash involving a double-decker bus and a city bus in Manhattan sent 18 people to hospitals for treatment

    NEW YORK — A crash involving a double-decker tour bus and a city bus in Manhattan Thursday evening sent 18 people to hospitals for treatment, fire and EMS officials said.

    Reports of a major vehicle crash came in just after 7 p.m., Deputy Chief Kevin Murphy with the New York Fire Department’s Division 1 Unit said. Emergency personnel found what he described as a serious accident, with the larger bus adding complications.

    “We’ve had a few minor challenges in the double decker bus — going through the windows, taking people out,” New York EMS Division 1 Deputy Chief Paul Hopper said.

    Ladders and ropes were required to get some people down because of crash damage to the bus, Murphy said.

    Many of those injured have cuts, bruises, scrapes, along with suspected fractures and head and neck injuries, Hopper said.

    “None have any life-threatening injury,” said Hopper, who added that about 63 other passengers requested evaluations by a doctor who was at the scene.

    Hopper and Murphy said they couldn’t speculate about what led up to the crash.

    “I heard the lady next to me scream, so I looked up and I saw this bus barreling towards us,” Ishrak Jahan, a passenger on one bus, told CBS News New York. “I just saw glass everywhere for a second. It was honestly like I was in a movie … I saw blood. I immediately called 911.”

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  • Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assist system gets closer look as US seeks details on recent changes

    Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assist system gets closer look as US seeks details on recent changes

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    DETROIT — U.S. automobile safety regulators are zeroing in on changes that Tesla has made to its Autopilot partially automated driving system, including how it makes sure drivers pay attention and how it detects and responds to objects.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked for details of changes made to all versions of the system including dates and detailed descriptions, according to a post on its site Thursday.

    The request is part of a larger investigation into why Teslas operating on Autopilot have struck emergency vehicles that are stopped along highways while they are responding to other incidents. It covers all versions of automated driving system including “Full Self-Driving,” which is being tested on public roads by Tesla owners.

    The agency has been investigating crashes involving Teslas using the system since August of 2021. Investigators have sent teams to probe more than 30 crashes since 2016 that have caused at least 14 deaths.

    In a letter dated July 3 and posted on the agency’s website Thursday, NHTSA asks Tesla to describe all changes to the systems in the “design, material composition, manufacture, quality control, supply, function, or installation of the subject system, from the start of production to date.”

    Tesla must respond to the request by July 19, or it could face civil penalties, the letter states. It asks the electric vehicle maker to update a previous response dated Sept. 19 of last year.

    A message was left early Thursday seeking comment from Tesla. The company says on its website that neither Autopilot nor “Full Self-Driving” can drive themselves and that drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.

    The letter also asks for which Tesla vehicles had cameras installed in the cabin to monitor drivers, and whether the system uses “Tesla Vision” which relies only on cameras to view the road and does not use radar.

    NHTSA’s request includes changes that Tesla made as part of a February recall of “Full Self-Driving” software. NHTSA pressured Tesla into recalling nearly 363,000 vehicles with the software because the system can break traffic laws. The problem was to be fixed with an online software update.

    NHTSA said in recall documents that the system can make unsafe actions such as traveling straight through an intersection from a turn-only lane, going through a yellow traffic light without proper caution or failing to respond to speed limit changes.

    The documents said that Tesla does not agree with the agency’s analysis of the problem. The company was to fix the problems with an online software update.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he expects to have fully autonomous vehicles this year, a pledge he has made for several years. “The trend is very clearly toward full self-driving,” Musk said in April. “And I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year.”

    The system is being tested on public roads by as many as 400,000 Tesla owners.

    NHTSA also has opened investigations during the past three years into Teslas braking suddenly for no reason, suspension problems and other issues.

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  • Man steals forklift from a Maryland store and rams a car, killing a woman, authorities say.

    Man steals forklift from a Maryland store and rams a car, killing a woman, authorities say.

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    Authorities say a man stole a forklift from a Maryland home improvement store and killed a woman in the parking lot after ramming the car in which she was sleeping

    WALDORF, Md. — A man stole a forklift from a Maryland home improvement store and killed a woman in the parking lot after ramming the car in which she was sleeping, authorities said.

    Bryce Caleb Timothy Brown, 20, has been charged with murder, assault, theft and other alleged offenses, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

    Brown broke into a Lowe’s store in Waldorf after midnight on Sunday and stole a forklift, the sheriff’s office said. Brown then rammed through the rear gates of the store and hit a parked car, the sheriff’s office said.

    A woman who was sleeping in the car tried to run away. Brown followed her, ran her over, stole her car and fled, the sheriff’s office said.

    Gloristine Pinkney, 73, was found dead under the forklift, the sheriff’s office said.

    Authorities said the two people did not know each other and it was not immediately known why Brown hit Pinkney’s car and ran her over. They are both from Waldorf, the sheriff’s office said.

    Brown was arrested later Sunday after detectives found Pinkney’s car near Brown’s house. Brown was being held in jail without bond. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer Tuesday.

    Waldorf is located about 56 miles (90 kilometers) south of Baltimore.

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  • 25 dead after bus crashes and catches fire in western India

    25 dead after bus crashes and catches fire in western India

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    Police in western India say a tire blowout caused a bus to lose control and crash into a road divider and burst into flames, killing 25 people

    NEW DELHI — A tire blowout caused a bus to lose control and crash into a road divider and burst into flames, killing 25 people in western India early Saturday, police told local media.

    Police officer Sunil Kadasne told the Press Trust of India news agency that 33 people were on the bus when the crash occurred around 1:30 a.m. on a highway in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra state. The eight survivors were taken to a hospital, he said.

    The private travel bus was headed to Pune city from Nagpur, another city in the state.

    Deadly road accidents are common in India, often due to reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles. More than 110,000 people are killed every year in road accidents across India, according to police.

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  • Man fleeing Ohio police with an abducted infant crashes into a home, killing the child

    Man fleeing Ohio police with an abducted infant crashes into a home, killing the child

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    Authorities in Ohio say a man abducted a 7-month-old child and crashed his car into a house while fleeing from police, killing the infant and critically injuring himself

    TIFFIN, Ohio — A man who abducted a 7-month-old child in Ohio crashed his car into a house while trying to flee from police, killing the infant and critically injuring himself.

    The crash in Tiffin occurred shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.

    The Wood County Sheriff’s Office had sent out an alert regarding the man — whose name was not released — after he had taken the child earlier in the day in North Baltimore, Ohio, while reportedly armed with a gun. He soon contacted the child’s mother and told her he was feeling homicidal and suicidal and claimed he had killed the child.

    Authorities did not say if the man was related to the child or its mother, and they did not disclose the child’s name or details about how the abduction occurred.

    Tiffin Police Chief David Pauly said an off-duty city officer spotted the vehicle and alerted department officials. The officer then began following the vehicle and provided colleagues with information about its location.

    Officers in police cruisers soon attempted to stop the vehicle, but authorities said the driver sped up before driving off the road and through the front yard of a home. He then crashed into another residence, knocking it off its foundation.

    Law enforcement officers broke out the car’s back window to get the infant, who was bleeding from the head and had “labored breathing,” The child and the man were both taken to a hospital, where the infant died a short time later.

    The man was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in Toledo, where authorities said he was in critical condition.

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  • Two slain, dozen wounded during shooting at social media promoted street party in Michigan

    Two slain, dozen wounded during shooting at social media promoted street party in Michigan

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    A 51-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were slain and a dozen others wounded during a shooting at a large street party in Michigan that was promoted on social media

    SAGINAW, Mich. — A 51-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were slain and a dozen others wounded during a shooting at a large street party in Michigan that was promoted on social media.

    The shooting occurred around midnight Saturday in Saginaw, about 102 miles (164 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, state police said.

    Police initially said about 200 people were in the area of the party and that officers had been dispersing the crowd prior to the shooting, MLive.com reported.

    Three people also were struck by cars and injured as people quickly fled from the gunshots, WNEM-TV reported. Investigators determined five different guns had been fired in the shooting.

    No arrests were made.

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  • At least 15 injured as Baltimore bus crashes into 2 cars, building

    At least 15 injured as Baltimore bus crashes into 2 cars, building

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    Authorities in Baltimore say at least 15 people were injured when a mass transit bus crashed with two cars before hitting a building

    First responders work the scene of a multi-vehicle crash in Baltimore on Saturday, June 17, 2023. Police say several people were injured when a mass transit bus crashed with two cars before hitting a building. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

    The Associated Press

    BALTIMORE — At least 15 people were injured Saturday when a mass transit bus crashed with two cars before hitting a building in Baltimore, authorities said.

    Baltimore police said officers in the city’s central district responded to a Maryland Transit Administration bus crash at about 10:20 a.m.

    A preliminary investigation showed that the bus crashed with a Lexus and a Nissan before coming to rest in a building. The Baltimore Sun reported that it was an apartment building.

    Police said in a news release that 15 people were injured, with two people suffering possible life-threatening injuries. Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright told the newspaper that 17 people were injured, with none of the injuries being life-threatening.

    Witnesses said the Lexus was speeding and ran a stop light when it struck the bus.

    “There were bystander, spectator reports that there were vehicles speeding through this and the MTA bus, in an effort to avoid being a part of that, collided into this building,” Cartwright said.

    The cause of the crash was under investigation.

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  • Man exhibiting mental crisis charged in unprovoked shooting of pregnant woman in Seattle

    Man exhibiting mental crisis charged in unprovoked shooting of pregnant woman in Seattle

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    SEATTLE — A man who police say was exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis after he shot and killed a pregnant restaurant owner in her car in downtown Seattle this week was charged Friday with first-degree murder in her death, and prosecutors said they are seeing whether they can also charge him for the death of the baby girl the woman was carrying.

    Cordell M. Goosby, 30, was arrested Tuesday soon after witnesses said he ran up to a car occupied by Eina Kwon, 34, and her husband, Sung Kwon, 37, the owners of a sushi restaurant near the city’s famed Pike Place Market, and started firing a stolen gun into the vehicle without provocation.

    Eina Kwon, who was eight months pregnant, was killed. Sung Kwon suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and the fetus died soon after emergency delivery. The King County Prosecutor’s Office said Friday that state law allows murder charges to be brought if the victim was “born alive”; it is reviewing medical records to determine whether a murder charge is warranted for the baby’s death.

    The prosecutor’s office sought that Goosby be held on $10 million bail. It was not immediately clear if Goosby had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

    Goosby is also charged with attempted murder in the attack on Sung Kwon.

    “The defendant’s actions left a family and community shattered,” senior deputy prosecutor Aubony G. Burns wrote in charging papers. “Victim S. Kwon and his family lost not just a wife, a mother, and a daughter when the defendant killed E. Kwon, but they lost an innocent baby girl.”

    The couple was stopped at an intersection on their way to work at their restaurant, Aburiya Bento House, when Goosby ran up to them and started shooting, authorities said. He emptied the 9 mm handgun into the car and took off, throwing the gun down. When officers found him nearby, he put his hands up and said, “I did it, I did it,” police said.

    In an interview following his arrest, police reported, Goosby told detectives that he had a history of mental health care and that he was being harassed by strangers who were spreading rumors about his sexuality and saying that he had done something to his caseworker.

    “He did appear to Detectives to be in some form of crisis whether genuine or knowingly performed,” police wrote in a probable cause statement.

    Goosby had no criminal history in Washington state, police said, but according to charging papers, he said he was wanted out of Indiana for a 2020 domestic battery case and has felony convictions from Illinois for drug possession and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Prosecutors said they were trying to confirm that information before adding a charge of unlawful possession of a weapon.

    The gun had been reported stolen to the Lakewood Police Department, south of Seattle, authorities said.

    It was not clear how long Goosby had been living in Washington, but he had a driver’s license from Washington state. Police said his last known address was an apartment building near downtown Seattle.

    His arraignment is set for next Thursday, when the court will formally inform his attorneys he has been charged. But as is routine, Goosby is not expected to appear in court, according to Casey McNerthney, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. Goosby waived his appearance at an initial hearing earlier this week.

    Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said Thursday that he had spoken with Sung Kwon.

    “Eina was a leader in our community and business owner, running Aburiya Bento House with her family,” Harrell said. “What was supposed to be a joyful time for the Kwon family has turned into an unimaginable nightmare caused by senseless gun violence.”

    The shooting has led to an outpouring of grief for the Kwons, who also have a toddler.

    A crowdfunding campaign to support the family and bring relatives from Korea to the funeral has raised more than $160,000.

    Mourners have placed flowers and other remembrances at their now-shuttered restaurant, including Eunji Seo, the consulate general for the Republic of Korea in Seattle.

    The Kwons opened Aburiya, which serves traditional and fusion sushi, in 2018. The restaurant is popular with tourists and downtown workers seeking lunch deals.

    Michael Bufano, part owner of Mack Gallery, an art gallery next to the restaurant, said Eina Kwon would greet him with a smile in the mornings and bring him lunch if he was too busy — “the kind of people everybody wants to have as part of your community and as friends.”

    For random violence to strike two people who seemed to have everything going for them was tough to stomach — especially as the neighborhood seemed to feel safer recently, with the city taking steps to address mental health issues and drug addiction, he said.

    “I think we’re on the right track and that’s why this hit so hard, I think,” Bufano said.

    Eina Sung’s death marked the 29th homicide investigated by Seattle police so far this year, according to The Seattle Times. Seattle police investigated 55 killings last year, up from 41 the year before that.

    ___

    Associated Press videographer Manuel Valdes contributed.

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  • Canada police say bus carrying seniors did not have right of away in crash that killed 15

    Canada police say bus carrying seniors did not have right of away in crash that killed 15

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    TORONTO — A bus carrying seniors to a casino that collided with a semi-trailer truck in a crash that killed 15 people did not have the right of way, police said Friday, after watching video of the accident.

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Rob Lasson said police also obtained witness statements from passing motorists that corroborated what investigators saw on the dash cam video from the semi truck.

    “This video indicates the bus entered the roadway where the semi truck had the right of way,” Lasson said, adding later: “We don’t know why the bus proceeded.”

    He said officers had not been able to speak to the driver of the bus, who is hospitalized. The truck driver also survived and was in the hospital.

    Lasson said police were not assigning blame at this time and continued to investigate. He added that officers were looking into whether the truck had mechanical problems.

    Lasson said investigators had not yet identified the bodies of the 15 killed, though those who were not injured were presumed to be deceased. He said the ages of the deceased and injured ranged between 58 and 88. Nineteen were women and six were men.

    The group of 25 seniors was on a day-trip from rural Dauphin, Manitoba, when the crash happened on the Trans-Canada Highway.

    Six of 10 seniors who survived were listed in critical condition, health officials said Friday. The remaining four were also hospitalized. Most of them had head injuries and broken bones.

    “This is an elderly cohort of patients, so recoveries will be long and, of course, can be complicated,” Dr. Shawn Young, chief operating officer of Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg, said at a news conference.

    In Dauphin, where most of the bus riders are from, flags were flown at half-staff.

    Sandra Kaleta, who is involved with the Dauphin Active Living Centre, said she knew some of the people on the bus and played Scrabble every Tuesday with one of them.

    “I have no idea how she is,” said Kaleta. “I think that’s the hardest part. I can’t imagine what some of these families are going through.”

    Kaleta said she recalled everyone feeling excited about going to the casino, something that didn’t happen often. The last such outing may have been before the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted.

    “It’s going to take years, not just days or months (to recover),” she said.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the flag in Ottawa’s Peace Tower on Parliament Hill would also be lowered.

    The crash happened just before noon Thursday. Police said road conditions were clear at the time.

    Rescue crews encountered a horrific scene of bodies on the road.

    The semi was still upright in a ditch, its front end crumpled, while the bus was on the grass a short distance away engulfed in flames that eventually burned it down to a blackened chassis.

    Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said everyone in the city of about 8,600 knows someone who was on the bus, and there’s a collective feeling of shock.

    The accident brought back memories of a 2018 bus crash in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan that killed 16 people from the Humboldt Broncos minor league hockey team.

    Meanwhile, police in the Canadian province of British Columbia said no critical injuries had been reported among 30 people on a charter bus that crashed on a forest service road north of Prince George, British Columbia on Friday.

    RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Cooper said numerous ambulances and police officers have been dispatched. The bus was carrying pipeline workers Friday morning when it went off the road.

    BC Emergency Health Services said 17 patients were transported to hospital.

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  • Bus full of seniors heading to a casino in Canada collides with truck, killing 15 people

    Bus full of seniors heading to a casino in Canada collides with truck, killing 15 people

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    TORONTO — A bus carrying seniors to a casino collided with a semi-trailer truck at a highway intersection in a rural part of the Canadian province of Manitoba Thursday, killing 15 people and injuring 10 more, police said.

    Rob Hill, Commanding Officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the bus was carrying 25 people and authorities in Manitoba were deploying all their resources to the scene. Ten people were taken to hospitals.

    TV broadcasters aired images of what looked like a large van or bus smoldering in a ditch near a transport truck with a smashed engine on a road. The pavement was littered with debris — broken glass, a large bumper and what looked like a walking aid. Seven blue and yellow tarps were stretched out.

    RCMP Supt. Rob Lasson said “as of right now the drivers of both the bus and truck are alive and in hospital.” He did not say if they were among the 10 listed as injured. The dead were mainly seniors.

    Lasson said the bus was heading south and there would have been a stop and yield sign. He said the bus was crossing the east bound lanes when it was struck by the truck that was going east, adding that who had the right of way is critical to the investigation.

    “The public is reeling and asking a lot of questions and people are trying to determine if their loved ones were involved,” Lasson said. “Death on this scale is never normalized for us.”

    The crash scene was in Carberry, a city 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Manitoba’s capital of Winnipeg.

    “The news from Carberry, Manitoba is incredibly tragic,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. “I’m sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones today, and I’m keeping the injured in my thoughts.”

    A family support center has been set up at a Lutheran Church in Dauphin, Manitoba for relatives. Police said the people on the bus were from Dauphin and the areas around it.

    Flags have been lowered to half-mast at the Manitoba legislature.

    A spokesperson for the Sand Hills Casino in Carberry said the van had been scheduled to arrive there later in the day.

    Kim Armstrong, the administrator of the Dauphin senior center, said the bus left from the senior center Thursday morning.

    The senior community is extremely tight knit in the city of around 8,600 people and the center is sometimes like a second home, she said.

    “It’s huge to lose so many individuals of our community and of course it is shocking. We just pray for those that are surviving,” she said.

    Armstrong said seniors and community members often go on trips on buses to nearby events or casinos.

    The truck company said in a statement it was heartbroken about the crash but had limited details about what happened.

    “We will fully cooperate with the investigation and offer any assistance and support that we can,” said William Doherty, CEO of Day & Ross.

    Nirmesh Vadera, who was working at a business on the side of the highway when the crash happened, said he went outside and saw a transport truck with a smashed engine on the highway. The bus was on fire in the grass on the side of the road. First responders were trying to get people out of the burning vehicle, he said.

    “It was burning and all the (firefighters) and medical help and everybody was trying to get them away from the fire,” he said.

    The crash brought back memories of the 2018 bus crash in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan that killed 16 people from the Humboldt Broncos minor league hockey team. Lasson said investigators in that crash are assisting.

    “Sadly this is a day in Manitoba and across Canada that will be remembered as one of tragedy and incredible sadness,” said Hill, the RCMP commanding officer.

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  • Australia police: initial inquiries indicate 10 dead in overnight bus crash

    Australia police: initial inquiries indicate 10 dead in overnight bus crash

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    Australia police say that initial inquiries indicated 10 people had been killed in an overnight bus crash in New South Wales state

    CANBERRA, Australia — Australia police said Monday that initial inquiries indicated 10 people had been killed in an overnight bus crash in New South Wales state.

    Police said 11 more people were injured in the accident and were taken to area hospitals by helicopter and by road. A further 18 passengers were uninjured. Police said they had responded to reports that a bus had rolled.

    The driver of the bus, a 58-year-old man, was taken to an area hospital under police guard for mandatory testing and assessment, police said in a statement.

    The accident happened just after 11:30 p.m. in the town of Greta. Police said they had established a crime scene at the site and had started an investigation into the cause of the crash.

    Australia media reported that it was a wedding bus. Jay Suvaal, the mayor of nearby Cessnock, said the crash was “truly horrific.”

    “We are a major wedding and tourist destination in the Hunter Valley, and so there will be people from all over the state and the country that have been to these areas and have probably done similar things,” he told Network Nine. “I think it will send shock waves right through the broader community.”

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  • 2 dead in shooting after high school graduation ceremony in Virginia capital

    2 dead in shooting after high school graduation ceremony in Virginia capital

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    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Seven people were shot, two fatally, when gunfire rang out Tuesday outside a downtown theater in Richmond, Virginia, where a high school graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.

    A 19-year-old suspect tried to escape on foot but was arrested and will be charged with two counts of second-degree murder, Interim Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards said during a nighttime news conference at which he confirmed the two fatalities.

    Five others were wounded by the gunfire outside the state capital’s city-owned Altria Theater, which is across the street from a large, grassy park and in the middle of the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. At least 12 others were injured or treated for anxiety due to the mayhem, according to police.

    “As they heard the gunfire, it was obviously chaos,” Edwards said. “We had hundreds of people in Monroe Park, so people scattered. It was very chaotic at the scene.”

    Edwards said one of the people who was killed was an 18-year-old male student who had just graduated, while the other was a 36-year-old man who was there for the graduation. Their names were not released, but police believe the suspect, who was not immediately identified, knew at least one of the victims.

    “This should have been a safe space. People should have felt safe at a graduation,” Edwards said.

    “It’s just incredibly tragic that someone decided to bring a gun to this incident and rain terror on our community.”

    Six people were brought to VCU Medical Center and their conditions ranged from serious to critical late Tuesday, VCU Health System spokesperson Mary Kate Brogan said.

    Multiple handguns were recovered. Police initially said two suspects were detained, but Edwards said later that they determined one of them was not involved.

    Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney vowed to ensure anyone responsible faces justice.

    “This should not be happening anywhere,” Stoney said.

    Officers inside the theater, where the graduation ceremony for Huguenot High School had been taking place, heard gunfire around 5:15 p.m. and radioed to police stationed outside, who found multiple victims, Edwards said.

    School board member Jonathan Young told Richmond TV station WWBT that graduates and other attendees were leaving the building when they heard about 20 gunshots in rapid succession.

    “That prompted, as you would expect, hundreds of persons in an effort to flee the gunfire to return to the building,” Young said.

    “It materialized in a stampede,” he said.

    Two people were treated for falls; one juvenile was struck by a car and sustained injuries that were not life-threatening; and nine people were treated at the scene for minor injuries or anxiety, according to police spokeswoman Tracy Walker.

    Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said the new graduates were outside taking photos with families and friends when the shooting broke out.

    “I don’t have any more words on this,” Kamras said. “I’m just tired of seeing people get shot, our kids get shot. And I beg of the entire community to stop, to just stop.”

    As he heard the gunshots and then sirens, neighbor John Willard, 69, stepped onto the balcony of his 18th-floor apartment. Below, he saw students fleeing in their graduation outfits and parents hugging children.

    “There was one poor woman in front of the apartment block next to ours who was wailing and crying,” Willard said, adding that the scene left him deeply saddened.

    Edythe Payne was helping her daughter sell flowers outside the theater to students as they left the ceremony. She told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the shooting caused a panic on nearby Main Street, which was packed with people at the time.

    “I felt bad because some elderly people were at the graduation and they got knocked down to the ground,” Payne said.

    The school district said a different graduation scheduled for later Tuesday had been canceled “out of an abundance of caution” and schools would be closed Wednesday.

    The mass shooting, the latest in a nation increasingly accustomed to them, prompted calls for reform.

    “The gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis that we must address,” U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat whose district includes Richmond, said in a statement. “We cannot continue to live in fear. We must address the root causes of gun violence and pass common sense gun safety policies that protect our communities.”

    Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, an ardent gun-rights advocate, said in remarks to news outlets near the scene that the problem lies not with guns but with criminals.

    “We have to figure out what’s going on in our communities,” she said.

    ___ Associated Press journalists Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed to this report.

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  • Dozens of dangerous rail crossings will be eliminated with $570 million in grants

    Dozens of dangerous rail crossings will be eliminated with $570 million in grants

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    OMAHA, Neb. — With the rail industry relying on longer and longer trains to cut costs, the Biden administration is handing out $570 million in grants to help eliminate many railroad crossings in 32 states.

    The grants announced Monday will contribute to building bridges or underpasses at the sites of more than three dozen crossings that delay traffic and sometimes keep first responders from where help is desperately needed.

    In some places, trains routinely stretching more than 2 miles (3.2 km) long can block crossings for hours, cutting off access to parts of towns and forcing pedestrians to attempt the dangerous act of climbing through trains that could start moving without warning.

    “We see countless stories of people unable to get to work on time, goods being blocked from getting where they need to be and first responders being delayed by these these trains that can be slowed or stopped — even seeing images of children having to crawl between or under freight trains in order to get to school,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

    In one case Buttigieg mentioned, a Texas mom called 911 because her 3-month-old baby was in distress, but an idle train kept the ambulance from getting there quickly and the baby died at the hospital two days later.

    In addition to problems associated with blocked crossings, roughly 2,000 collisions are reported at railroad crossings every year. Nearly 250 deaths were recorded last year in those car-train crashes. In one instance Buttigieg cited, a woman in California wound up stopped on the tracks after traffic backed up and she was killed when a train slammed into her vehicle.

    In recent years, the major freight railroads have overhauled their operations to rely on fewer, longer trains so they can use fewer crews and locomotives as part of efforts to cut costs.

    The railroads insist those changes haven’t made their trains riskier, but regulators and Congress are scrutinizing their operations closely after several recent high-profile derailments. And the problems at rail crossings are well documented.

    These grants are part of $3 billion in funding approved in the $1 trillion infrastructure law for these rail crossing projects that will be doled out over the next five years.

    A number of the 63 projects that will receive grants involve only planning and design work for eliminating crossings in the future, but most of the money will go toward physical improvements at crossings and eliminating longstanding problems.

    Buttigieg said he plans to visit Grand Forks, North Dakota, Monday to highlight a $30 million grant helping to pay for a project near the University of North Dakota campus that will improve access to the local hospital.

    A grant worth nearly $37 million will help eliminate four rail crossings in Houston, which has the second-highest number of rail crossing deaths in the nation. The four new underpasses to be built will reduce traffic delays and improve pedestrian safety.

    One $7.2 million grant will help improve access to an area of Fostoria, Ohio, known as the Iron Triangle because it is bordered on three sides by train tracks. A CSX train passes through the community about once every 26 minutes, with warning sirens at the crossings sounding for at least two hours daily. A new bridge will be built over the tracks on one side of the neighborhood to provide a safe route into the area.

    In each of these grants, states and cities — sometimes with the help of the railroads — must cover at least 20% of the project cost.

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  • Car-van crash in northwestern Wisconsin kills 2, injures 12 others, including 3 critically

    Car-van crash in northwestern Wisconsin kills 2, injures 12 others, including 3 critically

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    Authorities are investigating a van-car collision that injured 14 people, including two fatally, in northwestern Wisconsin

    RIDGELAND, Wis. — Authorities Tuesday investigated a van-car collision that injured 14 people, including two fatally, in northwestern Wisconsin.

    The crash along Highway 25 north of Ridgeland occurred Monday evening when a van carying 10 people was struck by a car carrying four teenagers, the Barron County Sheriff’s Department said.

    A 13-year-old boy from the car and a 54-year-old man riding in the van died from their injuries, the sheriff’s department said.

    A 54-year-old man who was driving the van and two 17-year-olds from the car were flown from the scene in critical condition, the department said.

    The remainder of the occupants from the van and the car were taken to hospitals with serious to minor injuries, the department said.

    A deputy was treated for smoke inhalation after the van caught fire following the crash.

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  • At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir

    At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir

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    At least 10 people died and 55 were injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims skid into a mountain gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir

    Rescuers prepare to use a crane after a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to a shrine skid off a highway bridge into a Himalayan gorge near Jammu, India, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

    The Associated Press

    SRINAGAR, India — A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to a shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir skid off a highway bridge into a Himalayan gorge Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55, police said.

    The bus was on way to Katra town from the northern state of Punjab’s Amritsar city when it fell into the gorge near Jammu city, police said.

    Local police officer Chandan Kohli told reporters that the bus was overloaded. He said the dead were from India’s eastern Bihar state.

    Residents and authorities rushed to the accident spot and launched a rescue operation. The injured have been hospitalized.

    The shrine of Vaishno Devi in Katra is highly revered by Hindus and hundreds of thousands visit it every year.

    India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

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  • Alabama police: 4 people wounded in exchange of gunfire outside Birmingham bar

    Alabama police: 4 people wounded in exchange of gunfire outside Birmingham bar

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    Four people were shot and wounded outside an Alabama bar early Sunday in what police described as an exchange of gunfire

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Four people were shot and wounded outside an Alabama bar early Sunday in what police described as an exchange of gunfire.

    Birmingham Police Lt. Ron Harless said three men and a woman were shot outside Tin Roof in the city’s Lakeview District, AL.com reported.

    The shooting was reported around 12:45 a.m. to an off-duty Birmingham police officer who was working inside Tin Roof.

    Police and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded and found a man who had been shot and a woman who was grazed by a bullet in the parking lot.

    An SUV reportedly fled the scene and was pulled over nearby. Two seriously wounded men, including one with life-threatening injuries, were in the vehicle.

    All four gunshot victims were transported to UAB Hospital.

    The shooting was under investigation, police said.

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  • Victims of deadly Oregon highway crash were farmworkers, union says

    Victims of deadly Oregon highway crash were farmworkers, union says

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    ALBANY, Ore. — The victims of one of Oregon’s deadliest highway crashes were farmworkers traveling in a van at an hour when agricultural laborers typically commute home after toiling in the harvest, the state’s farmworkers union and Mexican officials said.

    Authorities have not yet released the names of the seven who died or the four who were injured when a semitruck ran off Interstate 5 on Thursday and slammed into the van as it was parked on the roadside near Albany, in an agricultural area of the Willamette Valley.

    But the union, the Woodburn-based PCUN, said in a statement late Friday that the 11 people in the vehicle were farmworkers and that it has been in contact with some of their families to support them. It also offered condolences to those affected by the tragedy.

    “At this time, families are asking for safer roads for workers commuting after a hard day’s work,” Reyna Lopez, the union’s executive director, was quoted as saying.

    The Mexican Consulate in Portland also said that the victims were farmworkers in a statement in Spanish that it posted on Facebook and Twitter.

    “According to information provided by the office of the Oregon State Police, seven dead were reported in the … accident and four people injured, all of them apparently agricultural workers of Mexican nationality,” the statement said.

    The consul traveled to a hospital in Salem, the state capital, to offer assistance to the injured, who had been taken there for “urgent medical attention,” it said.

    The consulate also said it was in close communication with law enforcement and trying to locate family members of the deceased. It urged relatives of those killed or hospitalized to call the consulate.

    The driver of the semitruck that rammed into the van, Lincoln Clayton Smith, 52, of North Highlands, California, was arrested Friday on suspicion of manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and assault, police said. He was being held without bail in Marion County Jail.

    It wasn’t clear whether Smith’s case had been assigned to the state public defender’s office or a specific attorney. The office didn’t immediately respond to a message asking about that, and a lawyer whose name appears in court documents said she had not formally been assigned the case and could not comment.

    At Smith’s arraignment, a district attorney said he had refused a field sobriety test and was unable to focus and answer basic questions, the Salem Statesman Journal reported. The prosecutor also said Smith acknowledged taking “speed” the day before the crash and was in possession of methamphetamine, according to the paper.

    The DA said witnesses reported the truck had been weaving on and off the road as it traveled in the northbound lanes Thursday afternoon before it plowed into the van without braking first, according to the Statesman Journal.

    The van was then pushed into the back of another truck parked in front of it, Oregon State Police said.

    All the victims were passengers in the van. Six died at the scene and one more died after being airlifted to a hospital, according to Oregon State Police. Information on the condition of the four injured has not been made public.

    Bodies were seen covered in plastic in a nearby field after the crash, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

    The crash is one of the deadliest in Oregon in recent years.

    A head-on collision on a remote road in Harney County in eastern Oregon in August 2018 killed a family of seven, including five young children. Eight people died in total.

    In December 2012, nine people died after a tour bus careened on an icy Interstate 84 and crashed through a guardrail, plunging several hundred feet down a steep embankment. The bus was carrying about 40 people when the accident occurred in an area near Pendleton called Deadman Pass.

    Another crash in 1988, also near Albany on I-5, killed 7 people and injured 37 more. Two infants were among those killed in the fiery 23-vehicle pileup.

    Albany lies between Salem and Eugene and is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main north-south interstate highway on the West Coast.

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  • Jordan Neely, NYC subway rider choked to death, to be mourned at Manhattan church

    Jordan Neely, NYC subway rider choked to death, to be mourned at Manhattan church

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    Jordan Neely’s chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety

    ByDEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press

    FILE – Daniel Penny leaves Manhattan Criminal Court on May 12, 2023, in New York. Penny, 24, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, appeared in court hours after turning himself in at a police station after prosecutors said they were charging him in connection with the May 1 death of Jordan Neely. Neely’s chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety. On Friday, May 19, he is being mourned by his family at a church in Harlem. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Jordan Neely, whose chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety, will be mourned by his family Friday at a church in Harlem.

    A former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and homelessness in recent years, Neely died May 1 when a fellow subway rider pinned him to the floor of a subway car in a chokehold that lasted several minutes.

    The fatal struggle was recorded on video by an onlooker who said Neely had been yelling at other passengers as he begged for money, but hadn’t attacked anyone.

    Last week the man who pinned and choked Neely, Daniel Penny, was charged with manslaughter by the Manhattan district attorney. Penny’s lawyers say he was acting to protect himself and other passengers after Neely made threatening statements.

    The arrest polarized New Yorkers and people beyond, with some saying Penny, who is white, was too quick to use deadly force on a Black man who posed no real threat, and others saying the 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran was trying to protect people on the train and shouldn’t be punished.

    The eulogy at Neely’s funeral will be delivered by the Rev. Al Sharpton, a noted civil rights activist. The service at Mount Neboh Baptist Church will be presided over by the Rev. Dr. Johnnie Green, a senior pastor who has a long link with Neely’s family.

    In 2007, Neely’s mother was murdered by her boyfriend; Green delivered the eulogy at her funeral.

    While Neely had wrestled with disruptive behavior — he had been arrested many times and pleaded guilty this year to assaulting a stranger — friends and relatives have said they don’t believe he would have harmed anyone if Penny had just left him alone.

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  • 7 dead in vehicle crash on Interstate 5 in Oregon

    7 dead in vehicle crash on Interstate 5 in Oregon

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    Oregon State Police say seven people are dead and others have been hurt in a crash involving two semi trucks and a passenger vehicle on Interstate 5 in an agricultural area between Salem and Eugene

    Oregon State Police troopers work near the site of a wrecked tractor-trailer Thursday, May 18, 2023,calong Interstate 5 in Albany, Ore. Mulitple people were killed and others hurt in a crash involving multiple vehicles Thursday on Interstate 5 near Albany, Oregon, police said. (Alex Powers/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

    The Associated Press

    ALBANY, Ore. — Seven people were killed and multiple others hurt in a crash involving several vehicles Thursday on Interstate 5 in an agricultural area of western Oregon, police said.

    Officers responded at about 2:05 p.m. to the crash involving two semi trucks and a passenger vehicle in the northbound lanes about 7 miles (11 kilometers) north of Albany, near the Santiam rest area, Oregon State Police said in a statement.

    Seven adults died, police said, but they did not specify how many were injured.

    The passenger vehicle involved was a van, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

    Bodies covered in plastic could be seen in a nearby field and the Marion County medical examiner was at the scene, the newspaper said. A Life Flight helicopter left the scene at about 2:45 p.m.

    Police and fire officials put a blue tarp on the wrecked van and placed a barrier near one of the trucks to block the view of the scene, according to the Democrat-Herald.

    The van appeared to have been crushed between the trucks, a witness told the Statesman Journal.

    “Judging by the damage, it looked like the van was sandwiched,” Adrian Gonzalez said. “It got hit very hard.”

    Two Life Flight helicopters landed and took people away while paramedics treated others on the ground, Gonzalez told the paper.

    The cause of the crash was under investigation.

    The northbound lanes of I-5 were closed and traffic was being detoured, state transportation officials said.

    Albany lies between Salem and Eugene and is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main north-south interstate highway on the West Coast.

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