Saturday, March 29, 2008

Runaway Trailer Causes Serious Injury to Local Youth




Runaway Trailer Causes Serious Injury to Local Youth

On March 24, 2008, local Crandall student and Napoli’s delivery driver Montana Payne was headed west bound on 175 to deliver a pizza. After entering Seagoville, a trailer that was attached to a vehicle heading east bound, came loose and plowed across the median striking Montana’s car on the driver’s side. The student suffered severe injuries. Unconfirmed reports say that Montana may have broken ribs and a ruptured his spleen. According to the hospital his condition is stable and he is expected to be released in a few days.The name of the other driver has not been released. Lt. Calvary of the Seagoville PD stated “the other driver did stop” and no charges are expected to be filed.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Millville man dies when trailer hits his pickup



Millville man dies when trailer hits his pickup

by South Jersey News Online
Thursday March 27, 2008, 9:12 AM

By JEAN JONES
jeanjones@fast.net
MAURICE RIVER TWP. -- A Millville man died as the result of a freak accident after a trailer broke loose from a work truck and struck his vehicle at 10:28 p.m. Wednesday.

Lloyd Lovell, 51, of Nabb Avenue, an off-duty corrections officer at Southern State Correctional Facility, was operating his blue 2002 Ford pickup on Route 47, at milepost 32.7, near the Dorchester Wawa, when an enclosed Comcast trailer became separated from a 2008 white Ford bucket truck that was towing it.

The truck was being driven by Douglas Whilden, 55, of Vineland.

Lovell's vehicle collided with the trailer and his vehicle came to rest on its passenger side against a utility pole. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Port Elizabeth and Leesburg fire companies responded to the scene, along with the Millville Rescue Squad.

An investigation into the accident is continuing, police said. No charges have been filed in connection with the case.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Float accident disrupts Homedale's homecoming Parade








03:42 PM MDT on Saturday, September 22, 2007

HOMEDALE - Homedale High School students are recovering after a float accident during their homecoming parade Friday. Six students were injured in the float accident and one was taken by Life Flight to Boise in critical condition.

The freshman float came off the hitch from the truck pulling it and then smashed into a parked car. The float didn't even make it to the parade it came loose in route.

Before the football game, the crowd gave a moment of silence for those injured in the accident

It was a very scary time for a community, and especially for nearly 20 freshmen students on the float when it became unhitched from the truck.

"My feet were hanging off the side so I moved into the middle of it because I didn't want to jump off and get my stitches ripped out," float rider Jessica Henry said.

As the float made a turn on its way to the homecoming parade, it crashed into a parked car.

Aiesha Zenor is one of the five students injured.

"I just remember like flying off and sliding on my side and then I... when I woke up or whatever everybody was like screaming and I looked down and my wrist was bleeding and I couldn't move my arm,” Zenor said.

Zenor along with four other of her classmates were taken to West Valley Medical Center in Nampa with minor injuries.

Unlike her classmates, Martha Benitez wasn't able to make it to the homecoming festivities.

She was transported by Life Flight to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center with a fractured skull, and was later transported to another hospital for further treatment.

Superintendent Tim Rosandick says this unfortunate event clearly had an impact on the day's festivities.

"We care a great deal about our students, and it saddens us that we had this accident today,” Rosandick said. “I am pleased with the kind of reaction that the safety professionals performed for our kids, and I think we've done a good job of responding appropriately."

They built the float Friday morning and Aiesha and Jessica said they had a rough go with the float from the beginning.

When they were welding it together, it caught on fire torching the whole thing. They ended up having to start over from scratch.



Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Trailer Blows Tire, Comes Loose Starts Fire

Published: March 15, 2008 03:31 pm print this story email this story comment on this story

Rural inferno

Wildfire chars 680 acres; close call for homes

By Anita Miller
News Editor
San Marcos A lone Harris hawk swooped low over a charred Hays County pasture Saturday morning where a day before, cattle had grazed and field mice were plentiful.

The blackened field to the north of CR 266 was among an estimated 680 acres in Hays and Guadalupe counties that burned in a wildfire whipped by shifting wind gusts of 30 mph or more.

Dozens of homes were evacuated Friday afternoon after fire broke out near the intersection of CR 266 and FM 621 (Staples Road) around 3:30 p.m. For the next eight hours, about a dozen fire agencies plus state resources battled what authorities said began as four separate fires.

Three firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation, two at the scene and one at Central Texas Medical Center. No homes burned, though a couple of outbuildings and several abandoned cars were destroyed.

Nearly 100 personnel were involved, and evacuations ordered for the River Hills subdivision along with portions of the Dupuy Ranch. Also threatened was the Davis Ranch area. Firefighters were put on standby as far away as Spring River Estates near Martindale as flames neared the wooded banks of the San Marcos River and officials feared the fire would jump the stream.

For the most part, though, fields and pastures fed the flames that sent towering columns of smoke visible from miles away.

According to Jan Fulkerson of the Texas Forest Service, there were four “fire starts” along FM 621 from CR 266 to roughly the area of Scull Road. Though the cause is still under investigation, Hays Fire Marshal Carrol Czichos said he believes it was an accident, that “a vehicle pulling a utility type trailer on FM 621 may have experienced a tire blowing out or some other type of failure,” which led to the trailer coming in contact with the road surface and throwing sparks.

Of the four original fires, “three were under control right away but the fourth fire grew on them. That’s where the attention was throughout the day,” Fulkerson said.

It was a back and forth battle, as wind shifts complicated fire efforts. At one point two of the fires merged, Fulkerson, said, but the greater threat, of the whole fire complex coming together, was averted.

The effort included ground forces from San Marcos Fire Rescue, South Hays Fire Department and other area agencies, plus Forest Service personnel and bulldozers. An Air Attack pilot coordinated ground and air attacks, Fulkerson said, serving as the “eyes in the sky” for two Blackhawk helicopters from Austin and one helicopter tanker brought in from Fredericksburg.

All three choppers pulled water from area ponds, Fulkerson said, the Blackhawks picking up about 550 gallons at a time and the helicopter tanker about 1,000 gallons.

Residents along Picassio drive in River Hills were protecting their own property with garden hoses and buckets as firefighters rushed to control flare-ups. Among them was Robert Rodriguez, who has lived on Piccasio Drive for 50 years. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a fire like this,” he said. “I told my daughter ‘Get the kids and let’s get out.’”

Rodriguez, his daughter Linda Cantu and her three children were loading up to get out when neighbors showed up to help. Their home and backyard chicken coops were spared.

The Blackhawks returned to base around 6:30 p.m. Pam Robinson of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office said many fire crews began to leave around 10:30 p.m., though some stayed on scene throughout the night to check for hot spots.

The fires broke out on a day when the area was under a Red Flag Fire Warning, with local fire crews on high alert. Saturday morning, FEMA issued a news release saying President Bush has declared “an emergency exists in the state of Texas” and ordered federal aid “to supplement state and local response” in a long list of Texas counties including Hays, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Blanco, Comal and Travis.

Most Central Texas counties remain under a burn ban.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Motorcycle Rider Killed Sunday



Motorcycle Rider Killed

Bill Mitchell's picture

A motorcycle rider was killed Sunday evening when he was trapped under a cargo trailer being towed on I-24.

Witnesses say the biker was westbound about 6:30 near the Brown's Ferry road exit when he was hit by the trailer carrying a racecar that was being towed eastbound.

It had broken loose and crossed the median into the on-coming lane of traffic where it hit the biker, who was trapped under the wreckage for about 20 minutes.

He was rushed to Erlanger by EMS where he died.

His name has not been released.

Westbound traffic was backed up for more than three hours.

A loose trailer collided with a vehicle on Fruitville Pike

By JOHN M. HOOBER III, Staff

Lancaster New Era
Published: Mar 17, 2008
10:30 EST
Route 222 and Route 322, Lancaster

• A loose trailer collided with a vehicle on Fruitville Pike, near Koser Road, at 7:54 p.m. Friday, Manheim Township police said.

Municipal trailer runs amuck



Municipal trailer runs amuck
2008-03-13

Lise Beyers

A WOMAN was injured on Friday morning, when the trailer of a municipal truck came loose and smashed head-on into her vehicle.

The incident took place in Market Street, next to the Paarl Rugby Club, near the municipal depot.

The municipal truck and trailer, which was loaded with gardening equipment, was travelling in the direction of Denneburg, when the trailer broke loose.

The trailer rammed into the vehicle of Patricia Gay, who was travelling in the direction of Paarl CBD.

Gay was trapped inside her vehicle, while rescue workers battled to free her. She sustained injuries to her legs.

Gay is part of an American contingent at Monte Christo Ministries who spend a lot of time in the Paarl Valley helping move the poor and underprivileged from a life of hopelessness and survival, to stability, success, and significance.

According to eye witnesses on the scene, it was clear that the trailer had not been attached to the truck adequately and that the safety chain between the trailer and the truck was broken.

It is unclear whether it snapped or had not been attached.

A complaint of reckless driving is being investigated against the driver of the truck.

To add to the woes of the Municipality this week, a worker from the parks department was run over at the Parys Circle, while she was sweeping the street.

Patricia Jela of Phola Park, Mbekweni, was busy with a cleaning team, and while she was sweeping the side of the circle, she was hit by a truck and left with a leg injury.

Crash victim remains 'critical'


Crash victim remains 'critical'

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RICE " A Defiance man remained hospitalized this morning with critical injuries sustained when a trailer detached from a pickup truck and hit his vehicle on Ohio 634 northeast of here on Friday.

Brad Taddsen, age unavailable, of Defiance was listed in "critical" condition this morning at St. Rita's Medical Center, Lima.

At approximately 3:30 p.m., a Chevy 1500 pickup truck driven by Michael Jorkos, 19, address unavailable, was pulling a trailer with a vehicle on it when the trailer came loose and struck a northbound Ford F-350 truck driven by Taddsen, according to reports from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.
Taddsen was taken by air ambulance to St. Rita's.

His two passengers, Terry Ricker and Justin Holland of the Defiance area, were taken to Defiance Regional Medical Center.

Information on their conditions was not available.

Assisting at the scene were Ayersville EMS, Continental EMS, Oakwood EMS, Kalida EMS, Continental Fire Department and Kalida Heavy Rescue.
The incident remains under investigation and no citations had been issued.

Port Hope woman injured by unhinged hog trailer


Port Hope woman injured by unhinged hog trailer

Posted by The Bay City Times February 19, 2008 08:36AM

MARLETTE - Police said a Port Hope motorist's car struck a livestock trailer on M-53 on Monday after the trailer came loose from the truck pulling it.

Sanilac County Sheriff's Department deputies found several hogs running loose when they arrived at the crash scene about 1 p.m. Monday.

Rescuers took the Port Hope motorist, a 52-year-old woman, to Marlette Community Hospital but police haven't identified her. Officers said a 32-year-old Deford man drove north on M-53, pulling the livestock trailer, at the time of the crash.

The Port Hope woman drove behind the trailer when it came loose, officers said.

Following the incident the Deford man left the scene on M-53 at Walker Road, only to return later, police said. Police didn't identify the Deford driver, but said workers loaded the livestock on a passer-by's trailer for delivery to their original destination.

The livestock trailer wound up lying on its side in M-53's northbound lane.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Loose trailer causes accident




Loose trailer causes accident

Posted: Wednesday, Mar 12th, 2008


A homemade flatbed trailer came off its hitch and caused extensive damage in an accident Friday night at 6:41 p.m. on Hwy 26 near Frank Implement Company.

Jeffrey Henson, 51, from Bayard, Neb., was pulling a homemade flatbed trailer and traveling eastbound on Hwy 26 in a 2006 GMC 1-ton pickup owned by J & K Masonry in Bayard. The trailer came loose from the hitch, broke the safety chains, crossed the centerline and hit a 2002 F350 pickup driven by Donald Ekwall, 59, from Mitchell. Ekwall and his wife, Donna, 47, were westbound on Hwy 26 towing a 4-horse trailer on their way to a team roping event.

Henson sustained no injuries. According to Wyoming State Trooper John Jerkins from Wheatland, Donald Ekwall was taken to Community Hospital and then transported to Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Neb., for treatment of broken bones. Donna Ekwall was treated at Community Hospital for back injuries.

Seat belts were in use by all parties. Air bags did deploy in the Ekwall vehicle. Jenkins said alcohol and drugs were not suspected or tested for. The Ekwall vehicle and trailer traveled across the road and almost reached the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks. The railroad shut down travel on the tracks for approximately two hours while the Ekwall vehicle and trailer were being moved. The accident is still under investigation and no citations have been issued.

Trailer breaks loose and crashes into house



Trailer breaks loose and crashes into house: narrowly misses sleeping man

By Danielle Mario, TheStarPhoenix.com

Published: Thursday, March 13, 2008









Trailer breaks loose and crashes into house: narrowly misses sleeping man

By Danielle Mario
TheStarPhoenix.com

Keegan Miller lays on his bed, where a trailer burst in just over where he was sleeping.
CREDIT: Richard Marjan/The StarPhoenix
Keegan Miller lays on his bed, where a trailer burst in just over where he was sleeping.
Keegan Miller's basement bedroom this morning, where the end of the trailer came through the wall.
CREDIT: Richard Marjan/The StarPhoenix
Keegan Miller's basement bedroom this morning, where the end of the trailer came through the wall.
Police investigate the path of a trailer that came unhitched and hit a house at the corner of Avenue V and 29th Street West. Police are looking for the driver.
CREDIT: Richard Marjan/The StarPhoenix
Police investigate the path of a trailer that came unhitched and hit a house at the corner of Avenue V and 29th Street West. Police are looking for the driver.

Saskatoon police say a 31-year-old man turned himself into police this afternoon after a runaway trailer crashed into a west-side house. The driver had fled the scene after the crash, and police had been on the lookout for him today.

Keegan Miller was sleeping in his basement bedroom, when he was rudely awakened by a loud crash and pieces of something falling on his face.

Shocked, Miller tried to sit up, and banged his head on something hard just a few feet above his pillow. It was a sheet of drywall. Something big had crashed through his bedroom wall.

"I thought my friends were just playing tricks on me and putting something on my face," said Miller, an hour after the ordeal. "I was totally out of it."

The 19-year-old University of Saskatchewan agriculture student didn't know it at the time, but he just had a close call with a flatbed trailer.

Around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, a stucco company was driving westward on 29th Street West towards a job, when its tandem axel trailer came off the hitch. A witness saw the runaway trailer crash through a school zone traffic sign, nearly miss a tree stump and tree in the yard, and crash into the east side of the home, located on the corner of Avenue V North and 29th Street West. Miller lives there with his mother, Shona Gryba.

"I woke up to insulation hitting me in the face, and chunks of drywall," Miller said, taking off his hat and shaking debris from his hair. "I came outside and the trailer's in the side of the house. It happened so fast that the back wheel was still spinning."

Once a tow truck hauled the trailer out of the side of the home, the family of two peered through the hole, assessing the damage.

The trees that lined the side of the yard were crushed into the four by two-metre high hole, leaving a near perfect rectangular 'window' above the student's bed. Splintered wood, insulation and broken objects were scattered throughout the bedroom. Chips in the blue paint on the opposite wall of the student's room indicated that objects had been hurled against the back wall from a shelf when the trailer burst through the wall.

Miller jumped through the hole from outside onto his bed to explore the scene.

"All my hockey trophies, my diploma, my grad pictures," he listed as he dug through the rubble. Miller picked up a broken sandcastle statue from the floor. Gryba explained that the sandcastle was from Miller's dad, who had passed away from brain cancer eight years before. Miller was speechless.

Richard Harder, a 16-year-old Mount Royal student, was following the truck and trailer on the way to school in his car, when he witnessed the crash.

"It looked like the truck was trying to pass the trailer in the left lane, and then I realized that the trailer wasn't hooked on to anything," said Harder.

"The truck was just going and the trailer fell off and mowed some stuff down and hit the house going about 50 km/h. For once, I had a good reason for why I was late for school."

Harder said that the truck stopped and the driver and front passenger got out of the cab, but they quickly got back into the truck and drove away. Harder spoke to Miller when he came outside to see what had crashed through his bedroom. He then proceeded to school to tell Gryba, who teaches Grades 10 and 11 at the high school.

"I thought he was kidding and was just trying to get a rise out of me," said Gryba. "So I walked outside and they pointed across the park to the house and told me I better go home."

The truck was back at the house by the time Harder returned to the scene with Gryba, and he said that there was a different driver behind the wheel.

Saskatoon Police spokesperson Alyson Edwards said the 31-year-old man who turned himself in is charged with one count of failing to remain at the scene of an accident and one count of driving while disqualified, along with seven Traffic Safety Act violations, which concern the improperly hitched trailer.

Two employees of Interprovincial Stucco, who were sitting in the truck while police investigated, said they had "driven around the block to look for the trailer," and that is why they fled. The third man claiming to be the driver was talking to police and later refused comment.

"I guess they won't hire us to fix it, hey?" said Jeff Whiteford, who stepped out of the back of the cab of the truck to light a cigarette.

"This just went from bad to worse," said Miller. " I'm mad. The guy that was driving even came up to me and said, 'I know you need to go through insurance, but just so you know, we do drywall'."

Miller said that he was just glad that he was sleeping later than usual, because he was missing class to help remodel his bedroom's connecting bathroom.

"Usually my mom comes down and checks on me in the morning. She's usually in my room at that time waking me for school, and she could have been standing right there and would have gotten taken full on in the face. I'm just glad she's okay."

"I just don't think the bathroom remodel is going to be a priority anymore."

dmario@sp.canwest.com


© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008