STATES
Workers trapped behind fallen roof
Associated Press
CARSON, Calif. - The roof of a giant sewage tank under construction collapsed
yesterday, dropping 11 workers some 50 feet into a web of steel rods and wet concrete.
Four of the workers were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from a punctured lung to major fractures. The others had minor injuries.
"There's bent steel and rebar sticking out all over the place," said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Roland Sprewell. "It's very similar to the images we've been seeing on TV the last couple of weeks."
Sprewell said two workers had been impaled on rebar - the steel rods used to reinforce concrete - after falling into the tank, which is 50 feet high and 120 feet wide. One was hospitalized in critical condition, the other was in serious condition.
Tire maker to recall 3.5M more tires
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. agreed yesterday to recall 3.5 million more Wilderness AT tires, ending a 1 1/2 -year federal investigation into thousands of reports that the tires suddenly lost their tread.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which ordered the recall, also announced it had discovered 68 more fatalities connected to Firestone tire failures, raising the total to 271. Twenty-five of those deaths and about 50 injuries involve the newly recalled tires.
Most of the accidents reported to NHTSA involved rollovers of the Ford Explorer, which used Wilderness AT tires as standard equipment. However, NHTSA said yesterday it found no evidence to support Bridgestone/Firestone's claim that the design of the Explorer was faulty and at least partly to blame.
Driver pleads guilty to scare tactics
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y.- An ice cream truck driver who drove onto a sidewalk and toward a 12-year-old boy to frighten him plead guilty to felony reckless endangerment.
"He seemed to find some humor in scaring kids with an ice cream truck," Assistant District Attorney Mark Caruso said.
Raymond Delgado, 20, will serve six months in jail and five years of probation under the plea agreement.
Delgado was driving his tune-playing Mr. Ding-A-Ling Ice Cream truck when he swerved toward the boy, who was walking his scooter to a store to buy soda. The truck crossed the opposite lane, hopped the curb and stopped on the sidewalk in front of the boy, who scrambled to get out of the way.
The boy's mother saw the incident and flagged down the driver.
"He indicated to the victim's mother that he was just kidding around and he said this is something they do with kids all the time," Caruso said.
