Tag: roads and traffic

Body pulled from wreckage of collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia identified as truck driver, official says | CNN

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The body recovered from the wreckage of the Interstate 95 collapse in Philadelphia was identified by officials Tuesday as the driver of the truck that crashed underneath the freeway and ignited a fire.

The truck driver, Nathan Moody, died of blunt trauma of head, inhalation and thermal injuries, Philadelphia Department of Health spokesperson James Garrow told CNN.

Moody was a 53-year-old father of three and a career truck driver, according to his cousin Isaac Moody.

“Truck driving meant everything to him, that was his livelihood,” Isaac Moody told CNN in an interview Monday afternoon.

The tanker truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline when it crashed Sunday and went up in flames underneath the I-95, authorities said. A section of the overhead northbound lanes of the freeway then collapsed on top it.

The truck had gone through an off-ramp, fell onto its side while trying to go around a curve, slammed into a wall and ignited a fire around 6:30 a.m., Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said Monday.

Moody’s family had heard of the crash and immediately started calling him, but grew worried as their calls went unanswered, Isaac Moody said.

A state trooper then came by Monday, saying that a badly burned body was pulled from the wreckage, and requested dental records to help identify the person, Isaac Moody said.

The mangled and charred wreckage of the truck was hauled away Monday while crews with heavy equipment worked in the rubble of the collapse. Demolition is expected to take four to five days, according to Carroll.

As crews work around-the-clock to demolish the crumbled section of the I-95, officials warn it could take months to repair the damage to the critical East Coast artery.

Carroll said he and Gov. Josh Shapiro will lay out plans to repair the highway. “The governor and I are prepared tomorrow to provide that kind of detail,” Carroll said at a news conference Tuesday at the collapse site.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also visited the site of the collapse Tuesday. He told reporters that his agency will help provide “every resource that is needed” to help local officials address the damage.

Buttigieg described the “outsized impact” on commuters and goods movement in the area. The highway typically carries about 160,000 vehicles through Philadelphia daily.

About 8% of those vehicles are trucks that will now need to take longer, more costly routes, Buttigieg said. “That is a lot of America’s GDP moving along that road every day,” he said.

Buttigieg said his department is making contact with Google and Waze to optimize traffic information reaching commuters.

The fire caused a northbound stretch of the interstate to fall on the truck, authorities said. Southbound lanes were also compromised, officials have said, and need to be repaired. The primary detour is about 23 miles using state or interstate roads, local transportation officials said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s begun its investigation and the tanker truck will be an initial focus.

The company that owns the truck has been in contact with officials and is complying with state police, officials said. State police would not identify the company.

Buttigieg has said his agency is prepared to help local officials swiftly address the extensive disruption caused by the collapse. “To be clear, swiftly is not going to be overnight,” Buttigieg told reporters Monday at an event hosted by the American Council of Engineering Companies. “We’re talking about major structural work.”

I-95 collapse detours
1-95 is closed between the Woodhaven Road and Aramingo Avenue exits
Southbound detour: Route 63 West (Woodhaven Road), US 1 South, I-76 East, I-676 East
Northbound detour: I-676 West, I-76 West, US 1 North, Route 63 East (Woodhaven Road)
People are urged to use public transportation as an alternative and SEPTA is adding capacity and service

The governor issued a disaster declaration Monday, saying it will allow the state to dip into federal funds and cut red tape to expedite repairs. The proclamation makes $7 million in state funds immediately available for the reconstruction – though the total cost of the mammoth project remains unclear.

Shapiro also spoke with President Joe Biden on Monday, “who reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to provide whatever resources are needed to repair I-95 safely and efficiently,” the governor’s office said.

The state’s transportation department said a timeline for the rebuilding work would be released after engineers complete a review.

“Crews will work around the clock to ensure that demolition and reconstruction occurs quickly and efficiently, and that the roadway will reopen as soon as possible,” the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said.

As machinery towed pieces of the crumbled highway away, a team of federal investigators was beginning to examine the tanker truck fire and how it led to the highway collapse, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told CNN on Monday.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks with members of the media at the scene of a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

The tanker was carrying gasoline bound for delivery at a local Wawa gas station.

“We have to get in and see what we think happened with the tanker truck,” Homendy said. “There are lots of different scenarios.”

Investigators might also need to examine the structural makeup of the bridge, said Homendy.

Pennsylvania State Police said Monday that officials will not launch a criminal investigation into the collapse.

Shortly before the collapse, Mark Fusetti was driving south on I-95 in Philadelphia and began filming when he saw plumes of dark smoke.

Fusetti’s cell phone footage appears to show his car and other vehicles driving over a “dip” along I-95 as smoke billows from under both sides of the highway.

“I realized what happened when I looked in my rearview mirror. I see 95 – all of the cars stopping and then I learned, shortly after that the road had just collapsed and what was really going on,” Fusetti told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday.

Along with the smoke and fire under the highway, there were also explosions caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” said Philadelphia Fire Department Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer.

The collapsed roadway is one of the busiest interstates in the city – a critical East Coast thoroughfare that officials say supports Pennsylvania’s economy.

Restoring the highway will likely take months, Shapiro said, adding that his office was looking into “alternatives to connect the roadway beyond detours.”

The collapsed section of Interstate 95 is seen in this still image obtained from a social media video.

The impacts could ripple across the state and the larger northeast. Buttigieg said the incident was “causing what we know will be extensive disruption for the movement of people and goods through that region.”

He called it “a cruel reminder of the importance of our infrastructure,” while at the gathering of the American Council of Engineering Companies on Monday.

Residents were warned to expect delays to trash collection and bus routes in the area. All lanes of I-95 are closed between the Woodhaven and Aramingo exits, the city of Philadelphia said.

Monday morning commuters were forced to find new routes to work, with traffic impacts stretching beyond just I-95.

“You don’t realize how much that cripples the city,” resident Ruth Acker told CNN affiliate WPVI.

“I was supposed to go to work. Stopped at Wawa – made a mistake – 45-minute detour just to get to Wawa,” commuter Danny Rodriguez told WPVI.

Officials from New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland have helped manage I-95 traffic in the wake of the collapse, Carroll said Monday.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it added extra capacity and service to other transportation routes and was evaluating all options to assist travelers as they work around the highway collapse.

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June 13, 2023

Pedro Pascal says an angry driver spat on his car amid wild road rage incident | CNN

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CNN
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Steven Yeun is quite familiar with how volatile and angry drivers on the road can be, thanks to his starring role in hit series “Beef,” and it turns out Pedro Pascal can relate.

During a segment for Variety’s Actors on Actors discussion published on Monday, Pascal recalled a wild road rage incident that involved a driver spitting on his car.

“It was my fault,” the “Last of Us” star admitted, going on to tell Yeun that he “cut somebody off.”

Then, Pascal said, “I look over, and there’s a big glob of saliva – like visual effects put it there, man – just dripping down the side of the passenger window.”

“He spit at me,” Pascal added.

When Yeun asked what happened next, Pascal said that it didn’t solicit any rage out of him, but rather “absolutely humbled me and shocked me, scared me a little bit, disturbed me.”

Yeun stars alongside Ali Wong in Netflix’s “Beef,” a series that follows two strangers entangled in a road rage incident that sets them on a path of chaos, and he shared with Pascal that he got “flipped off” in his own recent road rage incident.

Pascal gushed to Yeun about how much he admired his performance in “Beef,” saying the show reflects “such a living truth that can happen anywhere but was happening to me yesterday in Los Angeles.”

He added to Yeun that his experience on the road that day made him “admire your performance even more because I was like, ‘You’re nailing it.’”

Both incidents, they said through a fit of laughter, took place on the same day in April, which happened to be the day before they sat down for their Actors on Actors chat in Los Angeles – a city known for tumult on the road.

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June 12, 2023

Officials scramble to provide alternate routes after tanker truck fire causes major I-95 highway collapse in Philadelphia that could take months to fix | CNN

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Officials are scrambling to set up alternate transportation options for Monday morning commuters after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia due to a tanker truck fire Sunday – leaving the East Coast’s primary highway with major damage that could take months to repair.

No injuries or fatalities from the highway collapse have been reported. But it remained unclear whether anyone was caught in the burning commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a flammable substance/oil?. The truck was still trapped under the collapsed highway Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference.

Roughly 160,000 vehicles typically commute on the now-collapsed road each day, making it “likely the busiest interstate in our commonwealth,” said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll.

“I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died,” Shapiro said, describing witnessing “remarkable devastation” during a flyover of the scene.

Northbound lanes collapsed and southbound lanes were damaged due to the intensity of the blaze and were “not structurally sound to carry any traffic,” Shapiro said. Restoring the highway will likely take months, he said, adding that his office was looking into “alternatives to connect the roadway beyond detours.”

Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district includes the section of the highway, told CNN that “you are literally going to have millions of people in what is one of the largest population centers in the country impacted in a significant way.”

The governor said he plans to issue a disaster declaration Monday, allowing the state to immediately dip into federal funds, cut through the red tape and move quickly to repair and reconstruct this roadway. He said he got assurances from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Secretary Buttigieg has assured me that there will be absolutely no delay in getting federal funds deployed to quickly help us rebuild this critical artery. I-95, of course, is a critical roadway that supports our economy and plays an important role in folks everyday lives,” Shapiro said.

The commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a petroleum-based product, caught fire around 6:20 am ET, causing a section of the overhead northbound I-95 highway to collapse atop the truck, authorities said. The cause of the fire is also under investigation.

By Sunday afternoon, the fire was contained but firefighters remained at the scene as a precaution “because of the large volume of product that was involved,” Philadelphia Fire Department Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said.

Crews will be working through the night to clear the collapsed section of the road, Carroll said.

Officials warned residents to avoid the area and to expect delays of trash collection and bus routes in the area.

“The challenges will be real when it comes to traffic movements in the city as a result of this incident,” Carroll said.

Leslie Richards, general manager of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), said the agency is adding extra capacity and service to other transportation routes and evaluating all options in assisting travelers work around the highway collapse including.

“In order to accommodate travel through the city and region following the I-95 collapse, SEPTA will provide added capacity and Service. on the Trenton, West Trenton and Fox Chase Lines,” SEPTA, the sixth largest public transportation agency in the US, said in a statement.

Mark Fusetti was driving south on I-95 in Philadelphia to pick up his son from the airport on Sunday before the collapse when he saw large plumes of dark smoke and began filming, initially thinking there was a brush fire.

Video he filmed on his cellphone appears to show his car and other vehicles driving over a “dip” along I-95 as smoke billowed from under both sides of the highway. He said he was startled by the dip, saying, “it felt like you drove off a curb.”

“I realized what happened when I looked in my rear-view mirror. I see 95 – all of the cars stopping and then I learned, shortly after that the road had just collapsed and what was really going on,” Fusetti told CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday.

The cause of and circumstances surrounding the fire and collapse remain under investigation, officials say.

Philadelphia Fire Department Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer said “it looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”

With thousands of tons of steel and concrete on top of where the fire was burning, firefighters initially faced a challenge getting to the seat of the fire, Bowmer said during a news conference Sunday morning.

There were also explosions around the highway collapse caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” Bowmer noted.

“We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said Sunday morning.

While the exact cost of repairing the crucial roadway remains unclear, the governor told reporters Sunday afternoon that the state is working with federal officials on a “speedy rebuild of I-95.”

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the collapse, according to a tweet from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration said administrator Shailen Bhatt would be in Philadelphia on Monday to “offer federal support and assistance.”

Officials work at the scene after a section of I-95 collapsed on Sunday.

The US Coast Guard, which was looking out for possible water pollution after the fire and road collapse, reported “a sheen on the water” that was confined to one area, according to a spokesperson.

The tanker that caught fire has the potential to spill 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

A 29-foot boat was sent to monitor the area “to observe any pollution to the waterways. They reported that there is a sheen on the water but it seems to be confined to the cove,” the Coast Guard’s statement reads. “The substance is gasoline and the tanker has a potential to spill 8500 gallons. However, it has been reported to us that clean up efforts are mainly shore side, meaning on land.”

The governor later Sunday sought to assure residents, saying “there is no threat to anyone’s drinking water.”

Brendan Riley, director of water operations for the Philadelphia Water Department, echoed that water in the city was safe.

“At this point in time, we have no concerns of any environmental impact to our water intake at the Baxter Water treatment plant,” Riley said. “There was a lot of coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection, the US Coast Guard as well as to make sure that we responded appropriately and deploy some booms, not only at our intakes but also at the outfall location where there was any potential discharge.”

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June 11, 2023

Section of northbound I-95 collapses in Philadelphia after tanker truck catches fire underneath highway | CNN

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CNN
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A section of northbound I-95 in Philadelphia has collapsed after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway, Philadelphia officials said Sunday morning.

“We did have a collapse of 95 on the northbound side, and the southbound side is compromised by heavy fire,” Derek Bowmer, battalion chief for the Philadelphia Fire Department, said during a news conference Sunday morning. “It looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”

Firefighters are still battling the blaze, Bowmer said.

Explosions around the highway collapse were caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” said Bowmer.

“We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said.

Photos and videos from the scene show huge plumes of smoke billowing from the interstate.

The mayor’s office told CNN a large tanker truck fire caused the collapse. The highway is closed in both directions around the area and the fire is under control, according to Sarah Peterson, the office’s communications director.

Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management, said officials would be dealing with the collapse and the fire for a long time.

“Today’s going to be a long day. And obviously with 95 northbound gone, and southbound questionable, it’s going to be even longer than that,” Mireles said. “The roadway’s gone.”

Tumar Alexander, managing director for the City of Philadelphia, said the incident will “be a significant impact to this community for a while.”

“95 will be impacted for a long time,” Alexander said during the news conference.

The fire is under investigation by the fire marshal and other partners, Bowmer added during the news conference.

The Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management urged travelers to avoid the area and seek alternate routes in a Sunday morning tweet.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has been briefed on the collapse, according to a Twitter thread Sunday.

“I was just briefed by @PEMAHQ, @PennDOTNews, and @PAStatePolice on the I-95 fire and collapse in Philadelphia. State Police and PEMA are on the scene assisting local first responders and @PennDOTSec and his team are en route to assess the situation and address traffic needs,” said the governor on his verified Twitter account.

“@LTGDavis and I are closely coordinating with partners in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the federal government and we will share more information as we have it. For now, please avoid the area and follow the direction of the first responders on the scene.”

Officials have not reported on any injuries.

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June 11, 2023

How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
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President Joe Biden’s administration is set to allow New York City to move forward with a landmark program that will toll vehicles entering Lower Manhattan, after a public review period ends Monday.

The toll is formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program — but it’s commonly called “congestion pricing.”

In practice it works like any other toll, but because it specifically charges people to drive in the traffic-choked area below 60th street in Manhattan, it would be the first program of its kind in the United States.

Proposals range from charging vehicles $9 to $23 during peak hours, and it’s set to go into effect next spring.

The plan had been delayed for years, but it cleared a milestone last month when the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the release of an environmental assessment. The public has until Monday to review the report, and the federal government is widely expected to approve it shortly after.

From there, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) can finalize toll rates, as well as discounts and exemptions for certain drivers.

New York City is still clawing out of from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Congestion pricing advocates say it’s a crucial piece of the city’s recovery and a way to re-imagine the city for the future.

“This program is critical to New York City’s long-term success,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month.

The plan would also mark the culmination of more than a half-century of efforts to implement congestion pricing in New York City. Despite support from several New York City mayors and state governors, car and truck owners in outer boroughs and the suburbs helped defeat proposals.

In 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg called congestion “the elephant in the room” when proposing a toll program, which state lawmakers killed. A decade later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who had long resisted congestion pricing — said it was “an idea whose time has come” and declared a subway state of emergency after increased delays and a derailment that injured dozens. Two years later, the state gave the MTA approval to design a congestion pricing program.

Ultimately, it was the need to improve New York City’s public transit that became the rallying cry for congestion pricing.

Each day 700,000 cars, taxis and trucks pour into Lower Manhattan, one of the busiest areas in the world with some of the worst gridlock in the United States.

Car travel at just 7.1 mph on average in the congestion price zone, and it’s a downward trend. Public bus speeds have also declined 28% since 2010. New Yorkers lose 117 hours on average each year sitting in traffic, costing them nearly $2,000 in lost productivity and other costs, according to one estimate.

The toll is designed to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 10% every day and slash the number of miles cars travel within the zone by 5%.

Congestion comes with physical and societal costs, too: more accidents, carbon emissions and pollution happen as belching, honking cars take up space that could be optimized for pedestrians and outdoor dining.

Proponents also note it will improve public transit, an essential part of New York life. About 75% of trips downtown are via public transit.

But public-transit ridership is 35% to 45% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels. The MTA says congestion fees will generate a critical source of revenue to fund $15 billion in future investments to modernize the city’s 100-year-old public transit system.

The improvements, like new subway cars and electric signals, are crucial to draw new riders and improve speed and accessibility — especially for low-income and minority residents, who are least likely to own cars, say plan advocates.

New York City is “dependent on public transit,” said Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning and policy group. “We’re relying on that revenue to pay for needed upgrades and investments that ensure reliable, good transit service.”

Improving public transportation is also key to New York City’s post-pandemic economic recovery: If commutes to work are too unreliable, people are less likely to visit the office and shop at stores around their workplaces. Congestion charge advocates hope the program will create more space for amenities like wider sidewalks, bike lanes, plazas, benches, trees and public bathrooms.

“100 years ago we decided the automobile was the way to go, so we narrowed sidewalks and built highways,” said Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and founder of an eponymous consulting firm. “But the future of New York City is that the pedestrian should be king and queen. Everything should be subservient to the pedestrian.”

While no other US city has yet implemented congestion pricing, Stockholm, London and Singapore have had it for years.

These cities have reported benefits like decreased carbon dioxide pollution, higher average speeds, and congestion reduction.

Just one year after London added its charge in 2003, traffic congestion dropped by 30% and average speeds increased by the same percentage. In Stockholm, one study found the rate of children’s acute asthma visits to the doctor fell by about 50% compared to rates before the program launched in 2007.

Some groups are fiercely opposed to congestion charges in New York City, however. Taxi and ride-share drivers, largely a low-income and immigrant workforce, fear it will hurt drivers already struggling to make ends meet. The MTA said congestion pricing could reduce demand for taxis by up to 17% in the zone.

Commuters and legislators from New York City’s outer boroughs and New Jersey say the program hurts drivers who have no viable way to reach downtown Manhattan other than by car, and that this would disproportionately impact low-income drivers. (But out of a region of 28 million people, just an estimated 16,100 low-income people commute to work via car in Lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.)

Other critics say it could divert more traffic and pollution from diesel trucks in Manhattan into lower-income areas like the Bronx, which has the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in the city.

The MTA and other agencies have plans to mitigate many of these adverse effects, however.

Taxis and for-hire vehicles will be tolled only once a day. Drivers who make less than $50,000 a year or are enrolled in certain government aid programs will get 25% discounts after their first 10 trips every month. Trucks and other vehicles will get 50% discounts during overnight hours.

Additionally, the MTA pledged $10 million to install air filtration units in schools near highways, $20 million for a program to fight asthma, and other investments to improve air quality and the enviornment in areas where more traffic could be diverted.

The stakes of New York City’s program are high, and leaders in other cities are watching the results closely.

If successful, congestion pricing could be a model for other US cities, which are trying to recover from the pandemic and face similar challenges of climate change and aging public infrastructure.

“It’s good to see New York City’s program is moving forward,” said the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board last month. “Los Angeles should watch, learn and go next.”

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June 10, 2023

Police: Marijuana use impairs drivers | The Hawk Eye – Burlington, Iowa – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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To some, April 20 is a holiday. There will likely be an increase in marijuana use that Thursday.

With an uncertain history, April 20 (more commonly known as 4/20) has become synonymous with marijuana use and, in some circles, the date is a marijuana “holiday.”

To help keep drug-impaired drivers off the roads, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is teaming up with the Burlington Police Department to spread the message that drug-impaired driving of any kind is dangerous and illegal. The police want to remind drivers: “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different.”

It doesn’t matter what the day is; marijuana impairment is a threat when behind the wheel of a vehicle. The police are asking community members to obey the law and make safe choices when driving.

• If used or using an impairing substance such as marijuana, do not drive. Passengers should never ride with an impaired driver. If a driver could be impaired, do not get in the car.

• If drug-impaired, pass the keys to a driver who has not used marijuana and can safely drive you to the destination. Like drunk driving, it is essential that drug-impaired drivers refrain from driving a vehicle. It is never okay to drive while impaired by any substance.

• If a friend is about to drive while impaired by drugs, take the keys away and arrange…

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April 7, 2023

FAA is laying out steps for air traffic controlers to avoid more close calls | CNN

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CNN
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The head of the nation’s air traffic controllers says there have been too many near collisions at airports and is laying out steps controllers should take to avoid more – including more supervisor oversight in control towers and extra controller training for “unusual circumstances.”

“Even though we all know that multiple levels of safety are built into our system, there is no question that we are seeing too many close calls,” says Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization.

The five steps laid out Thursday by Arel in an agency-wide memo follow last week’s FAA safety summit focusing on the recent series of near collisions involving commercial airliners on or near the runways of US airports.

“Our dedication to continuous improvement demands that we dig deep to identify the underlying factors and address them,” Arel said. “With the summer travel season just around the corner, airlines and the traveling public have high expectations.”

On Wednesday, the FAA acknowledged a shortage in its air traffic control ranks and loosened rules around airlines’ takeoff and landing slots at airports in the New York and Washington, DC areas.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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March 23, 2023

What’s going on with all the runway close calls | CNN Politics

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A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN
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There have been six close calls on US runways this year, which has led to a fair amount of news coverage, some alarm among the flying public and a lot of calls for answers – including from the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration Billy Nolen, who testified on Capitol Hill this week.

Unable to explain the spike, Nolen told lawmakers the agency wants to get to the bottom of things at a safety summit planned for next week. There are also specific investigations into each incident in Boston; Burbank, California; Austin, Texas; Honolulu; New York; and Sarasota, Florida.

I talked to CNN’s Pete Muntean, who not only covers aviation but is also a pilot and flight instructor, for his perspective on what the heck is going on.

Our conversation, conducted by phone, is below. Stick with it for an interesting bonus story on how low-flying planes are used to find poachers in Africa.

WOLF: Six close calls in recent weeks. Are these all distinct events? Or should we view them as one larger issue?

MUNTEAN: There’s definitely a constant theme because they’re the same type of event, which is officially known as a runway incursion. It is where two airplanes essentially get in the way of one another on or near the runway.

These types of events can range from really minor to more egregious. What we saw at JFK in New York in January, that had to be one of the more egregious ones. The air traffic controller had to swoop in and stop a flight that was barreling down the runway toward a crossing, taxiing (Boeing) triple seven from taking off.

That is a more extreme, severe example. There have been some examples where the airplanes get within a few hundred feet of one another, maybe as close as 100 feet. One of the cases like in Austin.

But they’re not really caused, necessarily, by the same thing. That’s, of course, something that investigators will look at.

(On Wednesday) the acting head of the FAA on Capitol Hill said that if there are dots to connect, they’ll connect them in this safety summit next week, although it doesn’t seem like there was any real common trigger. No common cause.

WOLF: Who is supposed to keep these from happening? Is it the air traffic controllers? Is it the pilots? How is it supposed to work?

MUNTEAN: There are multiple different layers of safeguards in place in the air traffic system, especially at these busy airports where there are a lot of airliners coming in and out in a lot of varying conditions, a lot of different times of day.

Some of the responsibility falls on air traffic control. Of course, it’s their job to keep airplanes from running into one another. Some of the responsibility falls on the flight crew to keep it so that they follow the instructions of air traffic control, that they remain vigilant all the time, if they’re taxiing across runways or taking off from a runway that’s crisscrossing with another one as they’re about to land.

The good news is that in commercial aviation in the US – which has a stellar track record, by the way – there are two trained pilots at all times. And there are a lot of eyeballs essentially making it so that these things don’t happen.

The pilots can intercede at any point, and in some cases they have. They’ve just essentially called their own go-arounds to make it so that they don’t come in contact with an airplane. In some cases, the air traffic controllers will call it. The onus is on a few different layers here.

I’m a pilot, but I just did a demonstration with a former NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigator at a busy airport, Dulles (in Virginia), and it begs pointing out that some of the safeguards are as simple as paint on the runway and taxiways to remind pilots not to taxi too close to the runway. Some of it is in the phraseology that’s used on the radio. Some of it is in the procedures and training the pilots get.

I think every pilot that’s out there now – and if you talk to professional pilots this is something that weighs on them – this has been a chronic problem for aviation for a while. But now, because of these headlines, it’s especially top of mind for pilots and air traffic controllers and regulators and safety advocates.

WOLF: You said it’s a chronic problem. Is there any indication or any data to suggest this is happening more often? Or are we in the media just paying attention to it?

MUNTEAN: I think these events are getting more attention. No doubt that these six that we have seen so far this year are extreme. Usually they don’t happen with such severity, with such frequency.

But the FAA, at every layer of aviation from commercial aviation on down to small airplanes and private airports, they’re always trying to remind pilots to remain vigilant. Something that pilots really train for in their first flying lesson is how to behave in and respect the environment around an airport.

In some ways, it’s like flying with a loaded gun. You have to be really, really careful.

The reason why these are happening, one pilot told me – who’s the representative for a large union of airline pilots and a major airline – he said the system is just under so much pressure right now. There’s a lot of corporate pressure for airlines to get back on their feet after the pandemic.

There’s a lot of new pilots flying right now, who may have matriculated from regional airlines to larger airlines. A lot of the old guard have retired. Pilots have left just because they were given voluntary leave packages as a result of the downturn of the pandemic.

There are a ton of different factors at play.

The fact that we’re sort of paying attention to these more just sort of highlights that nobody can ever let their guard down.

WOLF: Is the current air traffic system that we’re using technologically up to snuff?

MUNTEAN: I think it is. And I think the FAA would say that it is, because they have added in so many layers of technology to make it so that these incidents are avoided.

They have technology that can sense, at some larger airports, whether or not a pilot is lined up with the wrong thing, if they were aiming for a runway but instead aimed for a taxiway to land on – which has happened before.

They have more lighting on the pavement that warns pilots, essentially like a stoplight, to make it so they don’t go rolling across a runway as they are taxiing across one.

There are even systems that make it so that they can sense, using radar and other technologies, where airplanes are on the ground and not just in the air. Some of these runway incursions are caused simply by airplanes being in the wrong place as they are taxiing and not necessarily in the air.

I think the system is up to snuff. I think the FAA would say the system is up to snuff. But they’re also using this as a moment to sort of reinspect and have some introspection on the matter and whether or not they could be doing more to make it so that these problems can be avoided.

WOLF: You already pointed out that commercial aviation in the US is incredibly safe.

MUNTEAN: The last time there was a fatality was 2018, which was kind of a freak accident, where a person got hit on a Southwest flight by a fan blade that broke up in a jet engine.

We’re reporting on crashes that don’t happen. These are close calls, sure, but nobody’s been hurt. Nobody’s been killed. So it kind of shows, in a way, how safe the system is.

WOLF: Is there a spot in the system that is particularly weak? Is it takeoff or landing? What is the thing that makes pilots most nervous?

MUNTEAN: The common theme is having so many airplanes close together. That’s sort of the inherent flaw of an airport, right? You bring in airplanes and take off and land. You may be using multiple different runways at the same time. There’s a lot of demand in the air traffic right now.

Every airport is different, right?

Some airports may have a lot of runways that are parallel and a lot of taxiways that are parallel to one another, like at Dulles the other day, where we went. There are three runways lined up: one left, one center and one right. They’re all headed the same direction to the north. You have to be really careful that you’re lined up with the right one.

There are a few different things that you can do in the airplane to mitigate that and make sure that you have a safeguard of your own. But I think it really varies by the airport. In some places, there are intersecting runways. There are taxiways that have confusing turns.

The FAA does granular looks at things like this, where they say something like this taxiway design isn’t all that great, there may be a blind spot here, as you’re taxiing you may approach this at a 45-degree angle or it could be a 90-degree angle where somebody in the cockpit can see more.

Also when conditions are changing – we saw in the Austin incident the weather was abysmal at that time. It was very low cloud ceilings and very low visibility where the pilots were able to get an indication that there was somebody on the runway, an approaching FedEx flight and a Southwest flight that was still on the runway that hadn’t taken off yet.

They weren’t necessarily able to see that (Southwest flight), so far as we know, by their eyeball.

There are a lot of things at play. You can’t just say it’s any one different thing. And remember, these pilots are often going in and out of different places multiple times a day. The responsibility is on everybody.

WOLF: Do pilots face the same sort of difficult lifestyle we’ve been hearing about for train operators?

MUNTEAN: There’s a ton of regulation that protects pilots. We see that occasionally getting better. Even flight attendants have gotten longer rest rules recently, where they’re able to rest between trips for a longer period of time.

There’s always friction between organized labor, work groups and the companies that they work for. A lot of times it comes down to regulators and what they are able to do for workers. Pretty much every major airline right now – their pilot groups, as well as a lot of major flight attendant groups – are going through contract negotiations with their companies.

Some of the safety and protection, unions would say, comes from a good deal that protects not only their ability to work but also keeps pilots and passengers safe. Organized labor and unions have a lot to say about this, and they want to make sure that they are treated fairly to make it so that these incidents don’t happen.

I just talked to Dennis Tajer, who’s the representative of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents all the American Airlines pilots, and he said this is something that we’ve kind of been pounding our fists on the podium about, we’ve said for about a year that the air traffic system and the aviation system and the airline system are just under too much pressure, and now you’re seeing the result of that.

It’s on not only regulators like the FAA, the Department of Transportation but also companies to make sure that these major airlines – which are huge corporations – to make sure that their pilots are safe and doing the job properly with the proper amount of rest, with the proper amount of resources.

WOLF: Right. It’s in nobody’s interest for there to be an incident.

MUNTEAN: Everyone says safety is a top priority, of course.

But depending on your viewpoint, safety can have a lot of different meanings.

WOLF: It’s always been my sense that air traffic is one of the most, if not the most, government-regulated systems in the country. Unlike other areas where there might be a move toward deregulation, this is something the government controls and is going to continue to control.

MUNTEAN: It’s super regulated because a lot of the rules are, frankly, written in blood.

When you talk about this runway incursion issue, the landmark case is the Tenerife accident (in 1977), where KLM and Pan Am 747s that both diverted to Tenerife, an island near Spain, ran into one another and killed a bunch of people. There were some survivors, but it was a classic runway incursion incident.

One of the airplanes was back taxiing down the runway, as the KLM crew essentially blasted off without regard for where the other airplane was. They couldn’t see it because the weather was poor.

These regulations are often born out of horrible disasters. And I think the thing to point out here is that we have avoided disaster in these six cases, but in some cases came pretty close. It underscores why things were so regulated and also why the regulators are taking this so seriously.

WOLF: What are you looking out for?

MUNTEAN: I would point out these things are still under investigation. And the National Transportation Safety Board has tried to shed a lot of light on this issue. I asked Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, why do you think these things are happening more?

She said, well, it’s possible that these things are happening more. It’s also possible that these things are getting more attention. It doesn’t matter; it’s good that these things are being brought to the spotlight.

That could ultimately have a huge impact on safety. Aviation is not waiting for another Tenerife. They’re taking these one-off scares and really trying to learn from them.

WOLF: You sound very passionate about all of this.

MUNTEAN: I love flying more than anything. The cool part of my job is I get to talk about aviation for a living, and it’s something I’m so passionate about.

I also instruct and teach people. I just came back from this incredible trip in Kenya where I got to instruct for the Kenya Wildlife Service Airwing, flying with essentially rangers, who are also pilots, with an anti-poaching air force.

And that was just incredibly cool, but the focus is safety. Maybe I’m a little biased, but aviation is just like something I always geek out on. It’s fun to talk about. …

I was invited with a group of instructors to go there, and we were in a national park south of Nairobi, called Tsavo West. We flew with 19 different pilots. Three instructors from the States essentially go down and audit their flying ability and safety.

They’re very, very good pilots. Because they fly at a few hundred feet, guarding against poachers and spotting wildlife, they don’t have a ton of margin for error. We did a lot of brush-up things with them, and they were all very appreciative, and it was a very cool and rewarding experience flying smaller airplanes.

Those are the type of airplanes that are best suited for that mission, because they can fly low and slow and have a lot of visibility. You can’t do that in a jet.

It’s sort of like flying into Jurassic Park, because you see elephants all the time, and we saw rhinos and more zebras than I can ever count, and giraffes. But these pilots do a really important job, and (it) was really cool to be a part of it.

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March 12, 2023

Planning Board reviews proposed marijuana sites | News – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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TEWKSBURY — The Tewksbury Planning Board met on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, at town hall to address two retail marijuana proposals.

The board conducted a site plan review for The Stories Company’s proposed retail marijuana dispensary at 2122 Main St. “Donuts Village,” next to Donna’s Donuts, will include a 5,400 square foot building to be split between a dispensary and a retail or restaurant space.

The proponents’ presenting team included cannabis attorney Valerio Romano and former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis as a security consultant; Davis is a Tewksbury resident. The proponent plans to replace the sidewalk on Main Street and may add electric vehicle chargers in the future.

Board members largely responded positively to the plan.

“Do you think having a cannabis store would deter someone from moving in next to you?” asked member Vinny Fratalia.

Romano said that the proponent hoped to find an appropriate use to go next to the retail store.

“The downstream revenue for communities that host cannabis retailers is fairly significant,” he explained. “It could be something of a boon for that business as well as other ones… people come in and have money in their pockets to spend. Input from the board on what that use might be would be welcome as well.”

Chair Steve Johnson noted during resident…

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March 11, 2023

Super Bowl ad slams Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ tech | CNN Business

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CNN
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Electric carmaker Tesla will face a hit on Super Bowl Sunday, when an ad will play showing the alleged dangers of its Full Self-Driving technology.

The commercial, which will be aired in Washington, DC, Austin, Tallahassee, Albany, Atlanta and Sacramento does not paint Tesla in the best light. The ad is part of a multimillion dollar advertising campaign by The Dawn Project. Its founder, Dan O’Dowd, is a California tech CEO who has dedicated millions of his own money (and a failed US Senate race) to the cause.

The ad cost $598,000, a Dawn Project spokesperson told CNN.

It shows a Tesla Model 3, which allegedly has the Full Self-Driving mode turned on, running over a child-sized dummy on a school crosswalk, and then a fake baby in a stroller, in a series of tests by the Dawn Project. In the ad, the car swerves into oncoming traffic, zooms past stopped school buses, and cruises through “do not enter” signs.

“Tesla’s Full Self-Driving is endangering the public,” the ad said. “With deceptive marketing and woefully inept engineering.”

The Dawn Project says it wants to make computer-controlled systems safer for humanity, shooting its own videos as tests of Tesla’s alleged design flaws. In August, O’Dowd published a video showing a Tesla plowing into child-sized mannequins. Some Tesla fans posted their own videos in defense, using their own dummies or even their own children – YouTube has taken down several test videos involving actual children, citing safety risks.

O’Dowd received a cease and desist letter from Tesla over the video, claiming he and the Dawn Project were “disparaging Tesla’s commercial interests and disseminating defamatory information to the public.”

O’Dowd responded to the cease-and-desist with a 1,736-word post in which he pushed back at the suggestion his posts were defamatory, defended his tests and returned barbs from Musk and some Tesla supporters.

O’Dowd, who sold software to the military, is undertaking a campaign of millions of dollars to ban Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature. He is running national ads and posting online videos displaying the possible dangers of Musk’s technology. He also ran an unsuccessful one-issue campaign for the US Senate on the same message.

Though officially in beta mode, Full Self-Driving is available to any user in North America who wants to purchase the $15,000 feature.

Tesla did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system is intended to someday work on city streets, but despite its wide rollout, is still officially in a developmental “beta” program. No car for sale on the market is yet able to drive itself.

Autopilot is a suite of driver-assist features, while Full Self-Driving steers the car on city streets, but could also stop for traffic signals and make turns.

Tesla contends it is not aware of any ongoing government investigation that has concluded any wrongdoing occurred, and said its Autopilot, with its automated steering designed to keep a car within a lane, is safer than normal driving.

“Tesla’s reckless deployment of Full Self-Driving software on public roads is a major threat to public safety. Elon Musk has released software that will run down children in school crosswalks, swerve into oncoming traffic and hit a baby in a stroller to all Tesla owners in North America,” O’Dowd said in a statement.

Tesla said it “has received requests from the Department of Justice for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features” in a January 31 public filing.

Federal investigators are looking into a Musk tweet about disabling driver alerts on Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” driver assist system, joining several other National Highway Traffic Safety Administration probes.

On December 31, Musk replied to a tweet by @WholeMarsBlog which said “users with more than 10,000 miles on FSD Beta should be given the option to turn off the steering wheel nag.”

“Agreed, update coming in Jan,” Musk replied.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced last summer it was escalating its Tesla probe to an “engineering analysis,” a step toward seeking a recall. NHTSA first investigated Tesla’s driver-assist technology after reports Autopilot-engaged vehicles were crashing into emergency vehicles stopped at the scene of earlier crashes.

O’Dowd is the founder and CEO of Green Hills Software. Some of Musk’s defenders claim O’Dowd has a conflict of interest as one of its customers is Intel-owned Mobileye, which makes a computer chip to run driver-assisted software, the Washington Post reported.

O’Dowd told the Washington Post Mobileye is one of his hundreds of customers and that his main motivation is safety.

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February 12, 2023

Pittsburgh bridge to reopen less than one year after collapse with help from Biden’s infrastructure law | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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A bridge in Pittsburgh that collapsed in January, hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to visit the city to tout his landmark infrastructure funding law, is expected to reopen by the end of December.

The Fern Hollow Bridge may reopen to traffic before Christmas if installation of railings, lighting and line painting can be completed this week, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said.

The 447-foot-long, four-lane bridge fell about 100 feet into a park below early on a snowy Friday morning due to a “structural failure,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

A bus and four passenger vehicles were on the bridge when it collapsed, according to the federal safety board’s latest report. At least four people sustained injuries. The incident remains under investigation.

State officials, including Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, said that the federal bipartisan infrastructure law that passed last year is one of the reasons repair of the Fern Hollow Bridge is able to be completed in just 11 months after it collapsed.

The $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package was signed into law in November 2021 after receiving bipartisan support in Congress.

“Thanks to new funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $25.3 million in federal funds were made available for the project and the project was able to proceed quickly without affecting funding for other critical projects in the region,” Alexis Campbell, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said in a statement sent to CNN on Thursday.

Following the collapse of the bridge, the governor and mayor issued a disaster emergency declaration to speed up the repair process. This allowed the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to manage the design and construction. Once the project is completed, the city of Pittsburgh will assume jurisdiction over and maintenance responsibility of the bridge.

Some work will continue after the bridge reopens and is expected to last through the winter and spring.

It will take years to see the full impact of the infrastructure law, which provides funding for everything from bridges and roads to the nation’s public transit, broadband, water and energy systems.

The money isn’t released all at once. The law will provide roughly $550 billion of new federal investments over the next five years. Plus, major infrastructure projects – like building a new highway, adding a berth to a port or constructing a new airport terminal – take time.

But the fact that states and cities know the money is coming can allow them to move faster than usual, said Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who leads a team focused on infrastructure policies.

President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh on October 20, 2022.

The Fern Hollow Bridge is just one example. The law has already supported repairs on more than 2,400 bridges, according to the US Department of Transportation.

“Without the new BIL funds, we would have been scrambling to find the money to quickly replace the Fern Hollow Bridge, and other important projects would have been impacted,” said Wolf in a statement released in October when Biden returned to Pittsburgh to see the bridge repair progress.

In Nebraska, a state transportation official told lawmakers on Tuesday that a long-delayed, 600-mile expressway system could be completed four years ahead of schedule.

The official credited the federal infrastructure law as one of the main reasons the department was able to accelerate work, according to a report from the Omaha World-Herald.

More than $185 billion from the infrastructure law has been announced and is headed to states, tribes, territories and local governments, with thousands of specific projects identified for funding thus far, according to the White House.

The funds are delivered in two ways: through formula programs that send money directly to states and through competitive grant programs that require state and local agencies to apply.

A lot of the formula programs have long been sending federal money to states on an annual basis, but are now delivering much more funding for the five-year period covered by the infrastructure law.

For example, the Federal Highway Administration released nearly $60 billion to states in October through 12 formula programs to support investment in roads, bridges and tunnels; carbon emission reduction; and safety improvements. That’s an increase of $15.4 billion compared with fiscal year 2021, the last fiscal year before the infrastructure law was implemented.

Dozens of major, specific projects have been selected for funding through grant programs over the past year. Funding for the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program (known as INFRA), which is meant for freight and highway projects of national or regional significance, increased by more than 50% this year. About $1.5 billion was released for 26 transportation projects in September.

In August, the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program, known as RAISE, released $2.2 billion for 166 specific road, bridge, transit, rail, port or intermodal transportation projects across the country. In 2021, the program could only afford to fund 90 projects.

The infrastructure law also created new funding programs, like the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which released $615 million to states this year. That money can be used for installing public electric vehicle charging stations.

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December 17, 2022

As Mauna Loa’s lava inches toward a key Hawaii highway, some residents recall bygone devastation | CNN

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Mauna Loa, Hawaii
CNN
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From a deep fracture in Mauna Loa’s dark terrain, the volcano’s magnificent eruption sends geyser-like fountains of lava spraying into the sky.

The fissure – cracked open on the northeastern slope of the world’s largest active volcano – feeds a searing flow of molten rock that cuts through the contours of Hawaii’s Big Island. Plumes of volcanic gas, including sulfur dioxide, rise into the air, and delicate strands of volcanic glass, called Pele’s hair, float downwind.

In the week since Mauna Loa erupted, the stream of lava has coursed northeast, away from the volcano’s summit. Once a quick-moving stream, the flow has slowed significantly as it reaches more softly sloping inclines.

Though no communities are at risk, the lava flow is inching closer to the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, a major artery that remains open, connecting two sides of this island, according to the US Geological Survey. The lava is flowing at an average rate of 25 feet per hour, the agency said Monday.

“Though the advance rate has slowed over the past several days, the lava flow remains active with a continuous supply from the fissure 3 vent,” the release said.

Advance rates of the lava may be “highly variable” in the coming days and weeks with individual lobes advancing quickly and then stalling, the release said.

“If the eruption continues, it might cover the highway. But at this stage, it’s still about 2.3 miles away from the highway. But it is advancing every day,” said Natalia Deligne, a volcanologist with the USGS at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. “We don’t know how long this eruption is going to last, and that will dictate whether or not the highway becomes more threatened.”

If it closes, residents’ commutes could grow by hours as they seek alternate routes, creating “a tremendous inconvenience,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN on Saturday.

Hawaii’s Defense Department activated 20 members of the state’s National Guard Monday as a result of the lava flow from Mauna Loa, a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency statement said. The National Guard members will “assist Hawai’i County with traffic control and other roles in the Mauna Loa eruption,” according to the statement.

Mauna Loa’s eruption has attracted waves of awestruck visitors, some making the pilgrimage in the middle of the night to avoid the crowds, bundled in jackets and hats to protect against the chilly night air.

Also erupting now is nearby Kilauea, whose monthslong eruption in 2018 was one of the most destructive in recent Hawaii history, the USGS says.

Kilauea began erupting again in 2021 and hasn’t stopped. And though it poses no risk now to surrounding communities, Mauna Loa’s rare simultaneous eruption has rekindled memories of the pain and destruction Kilauea wrought four years ago, when it wiped out hundreds of homes and dozens of miles of road.

Just 21 miles east of Mauna Loa, Kilauea’s ongoing eruption is now confined to a lake of lava rippling at its summit. But the history of this volcano is painful for Hawaii’s Big Island.

Its 2018 eruption spewed lava into the large Leilani Estates neighborhood, swallowing more than 700 homes and surrounding others with thick layers of volcanic rock, creating unreachable patches of green foliage in a sea of blackened destruction.

Dorothy Thrall can still walk to the spot where her community once stood, now blanketed with hardened lava. From the deck of her friend’s home, she can see the edge where the lava stopped and blackened into volcanic rock, still steaming years afterward.

An area wiped out during the 2018 Kilauea eruption is seen Sunday from the sky.

Mauna Loa’s eruption has reopened some of the wounds she and her friends still have from 2018.

“I thought I was doing pretty good,” Thrall said. “My neighbor called me Day 2 (of Mauna Loa’s eruption), and she was in tears. She says, ‘I have PTSD, and I didn’t even know it.’ And I started crying, too, and I said, ‘I guess I do, too.’”

Thrall has no desire to see Mauna Loa’s eruption, saying she has seen enough lava in her time. Still, though, she still appreciates the majestic beauty and importance of volcanic events.

“Lava is beautiful. It’s Pele’s creation,” she said, referencing the ancient Hawaiian volcano deity. “That’s how the island was formed. That’s how the island was built.”

For many Native Hawaiians, the eruption of volcanoes, including Kilauea and Mauna Loa, holds incredible spiritual significance. Some have honored this week’s occasion by leaving offerings and participating in traditional chants near Mauna Loa.

As onlookers and tourists flock, officials urge caution and advise people not to venture into closed areas that could pose risk of lethal volcanic fumes, sudden collapses and hidden earth cracks, the National Park Service said.

A spot for safe viewing is a one-way route is accessible through the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said, noting vehicles parked on the roadway could get ticketed or towed.

The eruption has also created a risk of low air quality in some places due to volcanic ash and vog, or air pollution caused by volcanic gases. Sensitive groups, including children, the elderly and those with respiratory conditions, are advised to reduce outdoor activities that cause heavy breathing and reduce exposure by staying indoors and closing windows and doors, according to the Hawaii Department of Health.

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December 5, 2022

She left the dangers of Ukraine only to be killed riding a bike close to home. Hundreds will ride in her honor to demand change | CNN

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CNN
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On Thursday, Dan Langenkamp marked 12 weeks since his wife, Sarah, was killed.

To honor her, Dan and his two young sons do what they do every day at around 4:05 p.m., the time Sarah died: They drop whatever they are working on, gather together, hold hands and talk to her, sharing details about their day. They tell her they love her, they miss her, and they hope she’s proud of them.

Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was killed August 25 while riding her bike on a Bethesda, Maryland, road. She was traveling on the biker’s lane when the driver of a flatbed truck alongside her made a right turn into a parking lot and ran over the 42-year-old, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I’ve tried to make sense of what happened to Sarah, and since I started looking into it, I’ve realized this is not a freakish accident,” Dan Langenkamp said. “What happened to her is part of a huge, worsening trend in America of people getting killed in traffic crashes. There’s an epidemic of traffic violence against people walking or biking.”

The accident came just weeks after the couple, both diplomats, moved back to the US after spending roughly a year and a half in Ukraine and later in Poland, on the border. They were part of a small group of US government employees who stayed behind after Russia’s invasion but ultimately made the difficult decision to leave, so they could reunite with their two sons – Oliver, 10 and Axel, 8 – whom they had sent to their grandparents in California when the war first started.

The couple spent a few weeks in Washington DC before moving to Bethesda, where they were eagerly preparing for the start of a new chapter. Sarah enrolled in a master’s degree course and, three days after their move there, attended an open house at her son’s new elementary school. A few minutes before she got on her bike to return home that evening, she called Dan to share her impressions. It was the last call she ever made.

“We’ve lived in dangerous places,” Langenkamp said. “The last thing we expected was that one of us would die or get hurt in Bethesda.”

His anger, Langenkamp said, has been a driving force to push for change in bike safety. A GoFundMe campaign Langenkamp created has raised more than $289,000 to help local and national cycling safety organizations in their efforts to advocate for safer bike routes.

And on Saturday morning, more than 1,500 people are registered to bike to Congress in Sarah’s honor in the 10.5-mile Ride for Your Life event her husband organized.

The group’s requests to lawmakers include funding for the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, which was authorized by Congress but not funded and which can help local governments invest in bike lane infrastructure. They’re also asking for more measures around truck safety, including mandating better training and requiring side and front guards on large trucks to prevent people from getting caught underneath.

“I get comfort knowing that, maybe through all of this work, some other mother will ride home safely after riding her bike to work,” Langenkamp said. “And that’s meaningful to me.”

Sarah Langenkamp seen here with her arm raised, during

For many advocates, the fight for safer roads has been long and difficult, even amid worsening trends for biker and pedestrian safety. The problems have only been exacerbated by increased driver recklessness during the pandemic and bigger, heavier – and deadlier – vehicles on the roads, said Colin Browne, a spokesperson for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

More than 930 cyclists were killed on American roads in 2020, a 9% increase from the prior year, and more than 38,800 were injured, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 80% of fatal bicyclist crashes that year were in urban areas, the agency said. At least 985 cyclists were killed in 2021, a 5% increase from 2020, according to early estimates from the NHTSA. Since 1975, deaths among cyclists 20 or older have nearly quadrupled, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“It’s a public health crisis,” Browne said. “Even more so because this is, from a technical standpoint, not a challenging problem to solve. The tools and the engineering to make the streets safer to use is out there, it’s tested, it’s proven.”

But creating safer streets for bikers and pedestrians and regulating large vehicles has often proved a politically unpopular move, which has led to slow action from local leaders, he added.

“We could give (funding) to buses and people on bikes and scooters, but we have sort of built an infrastructure that assumes the majority of people will drive,” Browne said.

Anna Irwin will also ride her bike with her 10-year-old daughter on Saturday to honor Sarah’s memory. Irwin founded the Bethesda BIKE Now coalition, a local group created in response to a 2017 decision from local leaders to shut down a popular bike trail which ran through Bethesda during the construction of a rail line.

In these five years, the group has called for the completion of a network of protected bike routes – formed by two major paths – running from one side of Bethesda to the other, while the existing trail remains closed. But progress has been slow, Irwin said.

“Here we are, in 2022, and neither one of the routes is completed,” Irwin said. “They’ve done some work, but in five years they can’t build a protected bike lane to cover two miles of heavily trafficked area?”

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation told CNN it recently completed the first phase of two segments in the network and more bike lanes are either being designed or under construction, adding “we are building them as fast as we can.”

The department is also working with the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, which controls River Road, where Sarah was killed.

The highway administration said in a statement it is committed to the safety of all highway users but did not answer CNN’s specific questions on bike trail projects, including if there are plans for construction on River Road. The agency last month announced it started construction on another road in North Bethesda, where an 18-year-old cyclist was killed in June and a 17-year-old cyclist was killed in 2019.

“These things could have been prevented,” Irwin said. “We have got to just keep educating people about the need for protected bike lanes. You can’t just paint the road and then expect cars to give us the space that we need. It’s not safe.”

Langenkamp has said his fundraising effort will also help advocate for the state’s transportation department to create a safer bike lane on River Road, where Sarah was killed.

“Such bike lanes – lacking proper barriers, truck/auto driver education, laws, and law enforcement – are only death traps,” Langenkamp wrote on his GoFundMe page.

The fight for change has given Langenkamp purpose in what otherwise has been an unbearable three months. Adjusting to life as a single father hasn’t been easy, he said. Just a few days ago, his son noted he had no clean pants for school, and Langenkamp realized he hadn’t done laundry for a week. He often worries what holidays and Mother’s Day will look like for the children.

Sarah loved their two boys, he said. Even amid a demanding job which took the family all around the world – including to Baghdad, the Ivory Coast and Uganda – she was always able to turn off work and focus on her family, Langenkamp said. While working from Poland during Russia’s war on Ukraine, Sarah flew to California for a weekend over the summer to surprise her oldest son on his birthday. She returned to Europe when the weekend was over. And in the weeks before her return to the US, she wrote heartfelt postcards to her boys, sharing she couldn’t wait until they were reunited.

She was equally incredible at her job, her husband said, adding, “She was everybody’s favorite colleague.”

The two met in their Foreign Service orientation class in 2005 and were married a year later. “She had this quiet confidence, and a very down-to-earth, friendly demeanor that just really made her easy to get along with,” Langenkamp said. “She was the kind of boss that everybody loves. Just really smart.”

And she was never afraid to go to the places where other diplomats were sometimes unwilling to go, telling her husband it was “where we were needed.”

During their time in Ukraine, Sarah headed the US Embassy’s programs on corruption and law enforcement and was responsible for equipping and supplying its national police and border guard. And she was a “critical player” in Ukraine’s defense efforts and helped Ukrainian police and border guard forces receive equipment like helmets and body armor after the invasion, Langenkamp added. After her killing, letters of appreciation poured in from US leaders including President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“She was our guiding light, really, and our moral compass,” Langenkamp said. “It was her judgment that helped us through everything.”

Sarah Langenkamp with her two sons, Oliver and Axel, on July 4, 2017.

Three months since her death, reminders of Sarah are everywhere around the family’s Bethesda home, Langenkamp said.

There’s a corner – a part of the home Langenkamp refers to as a “shrine” to his wife – where a candle remains lit by her urn, surrounded by pictures of the family, notes Sarah’s sons wrote to their mom after her passing, jewelry she used to wear, cards from family and friends. Nearby, pictures of Sarah are taped right up to the ceiling. “We just try to have her around, everywhere,” her husband said.

There’s also a picture Sarah gifted to her husband at their wedding. It’s a picture of a bike with the words, “Life is a beautiful ride. Dan and Sarah, est. 2006,” the year of their wedding.

“Biking was a thing for us,” he said. “It was a central part of our lives,” a mode of transportation which was “down-to-earth, healthy and environmentally friendly,” Langenkamp added.

Wherever the couple found themselves, they tried to commute by bike when possible, he added. Choosing this fight for safety since his wife’s death was almost like an “impulse,” Langenkamp said.

“If the least I can do to honor her, a person who had so much potential in her life. If we can do a little bit of good as a result of this, I’ll have been consoled slightly,” he said.

“It won’t bring her back,” Langenkamp added. “But at least it will help, a little bit.”

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November 19, 2022

Antisemitic messages seen at multiple places in Jacksonville this weekend | CNN

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CNN
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Officials in the Jacksonville, Florida, area condemned multiple antisemitic messages that appeared in public spaces this weekend including a football stadium, highway overpass and downtown building.

An antisemitic message referencing rapper Kanye West was seen scrolling on the outside of TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville during the Georgia-Florida college football game on Saturday, according to video shot by a relative of Vic Micolucci, a reporter for CNN affiliate WJXT.

In the video, the words “Kanye is right about the jews” are visible scrolling across the exterior of the stadium structure, referencing recent antisemitic comments from the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

CNN has reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and TIIA Bank Field for comment.

It is unclear how the message was projected onto the stadium wall. It is also unclear how long the message was visible outside the stadium.

In other videos circulating on social media, the same message was also visible on at least one building in Jacksonville on Saturday night.

And on Friday, banners were also visible from a highway overpass on Interstate 10 in Jacksonville, according to a tweet from a local reporter. They were also referenced in a statement by Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried.

The banners read “End Jewish Supremacy in America” and “Honk if you know it’s the Jews.”

The language in the scrolling messages in Jacksonville mirrors banners that were hung from a freeway overpass in Los Angeles last weekend by a group appearing to make Nazi salutes.

Several officials condemned the messages in statements Sunday morning.

“The first step is to ensure we do not normalize this behavior,” Fried said. “Do not normalize Antisemitic messages above a freeway, or anywhere else.”

US Rep. John Rutherford, whose district includes Jacksonville, said in a statement on Twitter, “There is absolutely no room for this sort of hate in Florida. I continue to stand in support of the Jewish community in Jacksonville and across the nation.”

In a tweet on Sunday morning, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said the city is made better because of its diversity.

“Those who spread messages of hate, racism and antisemitism will not be able to change the heart of this city or her people,” Curry wrote in the tweet. “I condemn these cowards and their cowardly messages.”

The University of George and University of Florida jointly issued a statement condemning the messages.

“We strongly condemn the antisemitic hate speech projected outside TIA Bank Field in Jacksonville after the Florida-Georgia football game Saturday night and the other antisemitic messages that have appeared in Jacksonville.

“The University of Florida and the University of Georgia together denounce these and all acts of antisemitism and other forms of hatred and intolerance. We are proud to be home to strong and thriving Jewish communities at UGA and UF, and we stand together against hate,” the statement said.

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October 30, 2022

Hoverboards that actually hover? They’re here | CNN Business

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Real hoverboards that actually hover in the air are on the market

Some might be developed for use in search and rescue operations

One hoverboard creator is pitching their technology to be part of the Hyperloop project

CNN
—

Have you heard enough about “hoverboards” yet?

Needless to say, the reputation of the two-wheeled toys has suffered a bit of a beatdown – with the reported fires and airline bans.

Jeez, Mike Tyson couldn’t even remain upright on one, and he’s an ex-world champion athlete.

Worst part of the whole debacle: The so-called hoverboards don’t actually hover.

That’s the sore point for Canadian entrepreneur Philippe Maalouf. “I’m watching all these news reports saying ‘hoverboard’ with a straight face — and it’s not,” he said. “I was like, are people aware that this board is not even hovering? It’s on wheels!”

Maalouf has a big reason to be interested. As the CEO at Omni Hoverboards, he’s leading a small team developing a real hoverboard.

One that actually flies.

Imagine standing above tiny helicopter blades as they push you up into the air. That’s the idea behind the Omni.

Last summer, an early version shattered a Guinness distance record of 905 feet. Fascinating video shows the Omni taking flight a few feet above water and kicking up a cloud of vapor and debris.

Maalouf has flown an early version of the machine, and the way he talks about it, it brings you pretty darn close to flying like Superman.

In most flying vehicles, “you feel like you’re riding on the back of a dragon,” Maalouf said. But on the Omni, “you feel like it’s you who’s flying. And that’s new. That’s the innovation.”

Let’s be clear about real hoverboards: They aren’t a trend aimed at making a quick buck from a Marty McFly fanboy fantasy.

These are serious inventions being designed by engineers looking to move forward in the worlds of sports, recreation, policing, military and urban transportation.

“Someday, maybe you could commute to work with one of these things,” said Maalouf. “But I think regulation might prevent that.” More likely they would be developed for recreation — the way people use ATVs, he said. They also might be used to inspect bridges or as FEMA rescue vehicles, to pluck people from dangerous floodwaters.

A few tech hurdles still need to be overcome. Power is a big challenge. Hoverboards need a lightweight power system that lasts long enough for the vehicle to be useful. Battery power systems can be heavy. Maalouf said his team intends to power their Omni using gasoline-fueled engines. Look for an official prototype sometime in 2017, Maalouf said. Estimated retail price will be from $25,000 to $50,000.

Another hoverboard-maker claiming some success is aerospace firm Arca. Check out video of the ArcaBoard, a 57-inch-long, 6-inch-thick rectangle that flies on 36 “high power” electric ducted fans. The pilot controls it via a phone app. Slow and low, this thing only grabs about a foot of air and moves about 12 mph, according to its website. Still, ArcaBoard needs a lot of juice, which is why it only flies for six minutes before it needs six hours to recharge.

The ArcaBoard advertises for $19,000. The charger goes for an extra $4,500.

Hoverboards are just a starting point for Greg Henderson, co-founder of Arx Pax. “The hoverboard is not going to solve the world’s problems,” said Henderson, “and that’s what we’re focused on around here.”

The Silicon Valley-based outfit, which sold 10 Hendo Hoverboards on Kickstarter for $10,000 within 24 hours, wants to go bigger. Henderson wants to expand the basic physics behind the Hendo to help build huge, superfast, superefficient transportation systems.

“Our technology can all share the same infrastructure,” Henderson said. “A single person, or a train with a thousand people could take advantage of this incredibly efficient low-cost, new maglev technology.”

Arx Pax calls its magnetic levitation technology Magnetic Field Architecture. It involves special “hover engines” that float over a conductive surface. Very simply, here’s how it works: The hover engine generates a magnetic field that creates electrical currents in the surface. The magnetic field and the electrical currents push against each other, which allows whatever is riding on it – a hoverboard or a train car — to float above the surface. Floating creates a lot less friction than riding on wheels or rails, which requires less fuel, making this kind of transportation system theoretically more efficient.

Twitter’s future is in doubt as Threads tops 100 million users | CNN Business

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Washington
CNN
—

Twitter has weathered months, if not years, of mismanagement as well as mass layoffs, frequent service disruptions and an exodus of top advertisers, but the launch of a rival app from Meta could prove to be the final straw.

Threads surpassed 100 million users this weekend, less than a week after it launched, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday, marking a staggering feat for any social network and one that puts it on pace to rapidly pass Twitter’s audience size.

Meanwhile, multiple internet traffic analysts reported noticeable declines in Twitter usage in just the past few days. The results underscore the risk Meta poses to Twitter’s business and raise questions about how, or if, Twitter can stem its losses.

Twitter traffic had already been trending downward for months, according to data from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare and the web analytics firm Similarweb. But the pace of decline appears to have accelerated in recent days, both companies said, likely reflecting strong interest in Threads and a mass migration from the platform owned by Elon Musk to the one run by Zuckerberg.

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince shared a chart showing Twitter’s popularity relative to other websites it tracks. “Twitter traffic tanking,” Prince said as he posted the chart.

The chart showed that in January, Twitter was ranked 32nd on the list; the next month, it had fallen to 34th. For much of the spring, Twitter fluctuated between 35th place and 37th. But the beginning of July showed a rapid falloff in popularity, as Twitter plunged to 40th place. (Cloudflare defines popularity as the “size of a population of users that look up a domain per unit of time.”)

Similarweb told CNN Monday it has witnessed comparable trends in Twitter traffic.

“In the first two full days that Threads was generally available, [last] Thursday and Friday, web traffic to twitter.com was down 5% compared with the same days of the previous week and down 11% compared with July 6 and 7, 2022,” said David Carr, a senior insights manager at Similarweb. “We’ve been reporting for a while that Twitter is down compared with last year – June traffic was down 4% – but Threads seems to be taking a bigger bite out of it.”

Bolstering the traffic reports were the anecdotal experiences of some Threads users. Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, said Saturday he ran an “unscientific test” of how the same post he shared on Twitter, Threads and Mastodon, another rival, performed with his audience over a 23-hour period.

The identical content Stamos created on each platform saw significantly more engagement on Threads than on Twitter as measured by likes and replies — despite having a fraction of his usual reach on the newer platform, he said.

Stamos, who has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter but only a tenth of that number on Threads, added that strong Threads engagement with his posts describing the “research” also supported the original findings. The quality of the replies to his posts were also much higher on non-Twitter platforms, he observed.

“From my perspective, Twitter is done as a platform for serious tech conversations,” Stamos said, who previously was the chief security officer at Facebook.

Fueling Threads’ rapid growth has been Meta’s use of Instagram as a springboard to sign up new users, along with what many Threads users have identified as a dissatisfaction with Twitter.

Threads started out with a number of celebrity accounts prepopulating its platform but has since gained additional high-profile users including Kim Kardashian and Jeff Bezos. An account that had been banned from Twitter that tracks the movements of Musk’s private jet has also joined the new platform.

More than 100 US lawmakers have signed up as well, Axios reported last week, though few world leaders appear to be on Threads at the moment.

Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri have emphasized that Threads is about more than replacing Twitter and that the app seeks to tap audiences outside of Twitter’s traditional user base. That means Threads will not actively elevate news or political content, Mosseri said, describing those topics as “not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.”

Over the weekend, Mosseri’s stance on news and politics triggered a debate over Threads’ approach to those topics. Some users praised it as a way to make the platform more accessible to average users, who may never have embraced Twitter before. Others argued that many of the topics Mosseri characterized as non-political, including music, fashion and entertainment, are their own source of news and can be inherently political.

Even as Meta’s executives look to put some daylight between Threads and Twitter, the rapid rise of Threads only appears to have deepened Musk’s longtime feud with Zuckerberg. The app’s launch prompted threats of litigation as Twitter has accused Meta of trade secret theft, not to mention talk of a physical cage fight between Musk and Zuckerberg.

On Sunday, Musk, who is known for erratic behavior and incendiary remarks, made it even more personal as he lobbed a sexual insult at Zuckerberg and proposed comparing the size of their respective genitalia.

Zuckerberg has not directly responded to the insult. But after a Threads user pointed out that the new app was not featured in Twitter’s trending topics tab, Zuckerberg replied “Concerning” with a crying-laughter emoji. And he used the same emoji to reply to a post by the fast-food brand Wendy’s, which had suggested Zuckerberg should “go to space just to really make him mad lol.”

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April 12, 2021

Tag: roads and traffic

I-95 collapse detours

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