Deer crashes through windshield of Pennsylvania bus, takes a ride

Published May 15, 2013

Associated Press

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. –  A deer has taken a ride on a western Pennsylvania bus.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat newspaper (http://bit.ly/14nGOx0) reports the white-tailed deer crashed through the windshield of a public bus being driven Tuesday evening in Johnstown, about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The deer hopped around frantically near the driver before jumping on empty seats and running in circles in the aisle.

Authorities say the driver stopped the bus and opened the door and the deer got off. Cambria County transportation spokesman Josh Yoder says it "just walked off the bus."

The bus was carrying one passenger, who was seated in the back far from the deer. No injuries have been reported.

The bus has been taken to a maintenance facility for repairs.

There's no word on what happened to the deer.

View the original article here

Brazil helicopter crashes near Sugarloaf Mountain

Published May 08, 2013

Associated Press

SAO PAULO –  Brazilian police say a helicopter carrying five tourists crashed as it approached a landing pad near Rio de Janeiro's iconic Sugarloaf Mountain, and a news website says the pilot and five passengers escaped injury.

The city police department says Wednesday's accident was apparently caused by a strong gust of wind. It hasn't released further details.

The G1 news website says that besides the pilot, three Brazilian tourists and two "foreigners who live in the United States" were on the helicopter. It says that by the time rescue teams arrived, all six had left the wooded area where the helicopter went down.

A photo posted by G1 shows a relatively undamaged helicopter.

View the original article here

Diners hurt after vehicle crashes into Las Vegas restaurant

Published April 01, 2013

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS –  Police say a vehicle crashed into a Las Vegas restaurant during the lunch hour, injuring some diners.

Las Vegas police Officer Laura Meltzer said she didn't immediately know the number of people hurt and didn't know if anyone was killed when the vehicle hit the Egg & I restaurant on Sahara Avenue a little after 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Meltzer says rescuers initially summoned at least 10 ambulances to the eatery a few blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Police say one person was arrested.

Meltzer says some of the injured may have been dining on a patio outside the restaurant, and witnesses may have grabbed the driver when he or she tried to leave the scene.

View the original article here

2 dead, several injured after private plane crashes into Indiana homes

• 

  March 17, 2013: The front end of a Hawker Beachcraft Premier jet sits in a room of a home on Iowa Street in South Bend, Ind.AP/South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND, Ind. –  A private jet apparently experiencing mechanical trouble crashed Sunday in a northern Indiana neighborhood, hitting three homes and killing two people aboard the plane, authorities and witnesses said.

The Beechcraft Premier I twin-jet had left Tulsa, Okla.'s Riverside Airport and crashed near South Bend Regional Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig in Oklahoma City said. Two of four people aboard the plane were killed, Herwig said.

It was not clear if anyone on the ground was killed, and Herwig did not have any additional information.

South Bend Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Maggie Scroope said three people injured when the plane crashed were being treated there; one was in serious condition and two were in fair condition. Scoope did not know if they were on the plane or the ground.

The plane was registered to 7700 Enterprises of Montana LLC in Helena, Mont. The company is owned by Wes Caves and does business as DigiCut Systems in Tulsa, Okla. It makes window film and paint overlay for automobiles.

A woman identifying herself as Caves' wife answered the phone at their home Sunday and said, "I think he's dead," before hanging up.

In South Bend, Assistant Fire Chief John Corthier said the presence of jet fuel from the aircraft made the situation "very dangerous," Corthier said. The plane was lodged inside a house.

"It's still a rescue operation," Corthier said about three hours after the crash. Referring to one of the damaged houses, he said, "Because of the collapse in the house it's a very dangerous situation. We have to shore up the house before we can enter the house. "

Part of the neighborhood southwest of the airport was evacuated. Buses transported up to 200 people to a nearby shelter, Red Cross volunteer Jackie Lincoln said.

Mike Daigle, executive director of the St. Joseph County Airport Authority, said the jet attempted a landing, went back up and maneuvered south to try another landing, but eight minutes later the airport learned the plane was no longer airborne.

"There was an indication of a mechanical problem," Herwig said.

Stan Klaybor, who lives across the street from the crash scene, said the jet clipped the top of one house, heavily damaged a second, and finally came to rest against a third. Neighbors did not know if a woman living in the most heavily damaged house was home at the time, and a young boy in the third house did not appear to be seriously injured, Klaybor said.

"Her little boy was in the kitchen and he got nicked here," Klaybor said, pointing to his forehead.

His wife, Mary Jane, regularly watches planes approach the airport.

"I was looking out my picture window. The plane's coming, and I go, 'Wait a minute,' and then, boom," she said.

"This one was coming straight at my house. I went, 'Huh?' and then there was a big crash, and all the insulation went flying," she said.

View the original article here

Pair of Kentucky crashes results in 6 deaths, 5 injuries

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. –  The drummer for country music star Kellie Pickler remains hospitalized in serious condition after a multiple vehicle crash in Kentucky.

Gregg Lohman of Goodlettsville, Tenn., was one of five people hospitalized in two crashes that happened within minutes of each other at the same spot on Interstate 65 in central Kentucky on Saturday. Six people were killed in one of the wrecks

A Kentucky State Police spokesman says Lohman, who also works as a music instructor at Tennessee State University, has head and neck injuries after a four-vehicle wreck in the southbound lanes. It happened about 15 minutes after a fiery crash involving a tractor-trailer and an SUV on the northbound side of the highway.

Six people from rural Wisconsin were killed when the tractor-trailer rear-ended their Ford Expedition in the northbound lanes near Glendale, Ky.

The National Transportation Safety Board has consulted with law enforcement and doesn't currently plan to open an investigation.

View the original article here

Bus carrying Maine women's basketball team crashes north of Boston

GEORGETOWN, Mass. –  A bus carrying University of Maine women's basketball players ran off a highway north of Boston on Tuesday night, seriously injuring the driver, who police said may have had a medical episode.

State police said 22 other people on the bus, including students and athletic staff, had only minor injuries.

The driver, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken by helicopter to a Boston hospital.

The bus was southbound on Interstate 95 at about 8:30 p.m. when it crossed the median, went across the northbound lane and down an embankment into woods near Georgetown, a town of about 8,000 residents 30 miles from Boston.

Georgetown Fire Chief Al Beardsley said it was a miracle no other cars were involved.

"This is a very heavily traveled road, day and night, and for a bus that size to basically catapult across the road, I couldn't imagine being northbound and seeing that thing coming at me," Beardsley said at the scene.

The University of Maine said Coach Richard Barron was treated for minor facial cuts and three others -- players Ashleigh Roberts and Corinne Wellington, and Samantha Wheeler, the team's director of basketball operations -- were taken to a hospital for observation. The team was en route to play Boston University on Wednesday night.

"We're very thankful that this accident was not any worse than it was," Robert Dana, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said in a statement. "The thoughts of the entire University of Maine community are with the bus driver and the team as they contend with this very frightening event."

Beardsley said authorities are still investigating what caused the driver to veer off the highway, which has four lanes in each direction and a broad median. Police say their preliminary investigation indicates he had a medical issue.

The bus remained upright and appeared to have plowed through a roadside snowbank, knocked down a mile marker, and crashed into woods along the road before coming to rest pointing down an embankment.

"He hit pretty high up on the tree, you can see marks," Beardsley said.

The bus was owned by the John T. Cyr & Sons Inc. bus line of Old Town, Maine. A man who answered the phone at the company's office late Tuesday said company officials were gathering information and had notified their insurance carrier.

UMaine Athletic Director Steve Abbott told WHDH-TV in Boston that it was "quite a traumatic ride" and that although passengers were shaken up none were seriously hurt. He said the university has used the bus company extensively and found it to be a "terrific carrier."

A state police car that stopped at the scene was struck by another car. The trooper who had been driving it was taken to a hospital with what appeared to be minor injuries, police said. Police said the driver of the car was not hurt.

Earlier this month, a bus crash in Boston injured 35 people, including high school students and chaperones, from Pennsylvania. The coach slammed into a 10-foot-high overpass on Feb. 2 while returning to the Philadelphia area from a trip to Harvard University.

View the original article here

5 dead after small plane runs off runway and crashes in eastern Georgia

THOMSON, Ga. –  Five people were killed and two injured when a small jet crashed Wednesday night off the end of a runway in eastern Georgia.

Thomson-McDuffie County Sheriff Logan Marshall said the jet crashed after 8 p.m. Wednesday. He said the two survivors were taken to area hospitals but did not have information on their conditions. He said the identities of those killed were being withheld pending notification of family members.

The Hawker Beechcraft 390/Premier I en route from Nashville, Tenn., crashed around 8:30 p.m. at the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport, about 30 miles west of Augusta, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said in an email.

Seven people were aboard, she told The Associated Press in the email. She added that she had no immediate details about a possible cause.

The Augusta Chronicle cited Assistant County Fire Chief Stephen Sewell as saying there were at least two survivors identified as a pilot and a passenger. But he provided no additional information about those aboard in that account.

The newspaper said a brush fire flared near the crash scene, quoting witnesses who reported local power outages that prompted a utility to send workers to the site. A photograph posted on the newspaper's online site showed ambulances with lights flashing.

The plane was on a flight from John Tune Airport in Nashville, Tenn., to the Thomson-McDuffie airport, Bergen said in her email, adding the aircraft is registered to a company based in Wilmington, Del.

View the original article here