Just weeks after the final decision in the Exxon Valdez case, another (fortunately) smaller oil spill makes the news with the sentencing of to the helsman of the Cosco Busan. The tanker was involved in an oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 2007.
For more on the Exxon Valdez case resolution in June, go to http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-valdez16-2009jun16,0,7865562.story
For the 2008 Supreme Court decision in the case, go to http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-219.pdf
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://tbilaw.com
Date: 7/17/2009 6:54 PM
JARED GRIGSBY,Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The helmsman of a cargo ship that set off a major environmental disaster in the San Francisco Bay was sentenced Friday to 10 months in prison.
John Cota pleaded guilty in March to two misdemeanor environmental crimes of illegally discharging oil in the bay and killing thousands of birds.
Cota apologized to the court and to the “people of the Bay Area for the damage I have caused.”
Cota’s attorney, Jeff Bornstein, had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to impose a two-month sentence.
Bornstein argued that his client wasn’t the only person responsible for the Nov. 7, 2007, oil spill that poured more than 53,000 gallons of oil into the water after the 901-foot Cosco Busan struck a tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The spill killed 2,000 birds, fouled dozens of miles of coastline and cost commercial fishermen millions of dollars in lost revenue.
A poorly trained Chinese crew, language barriers and others factors beyond Cota’s control contributed to the accident, Bornstein said.
“This was an accident, a chain of errors and lots of people played a role in it,” Bornstein said.
Illston, however, said Cota was hired to guide the ship out of the San Francisco Bay because of his extensive knowledge of the region and should have known where the bridge was located.
“You have a structure that has not moved from its position for many, many years,” she said.
The judge also agreed with prosecutors that Cota made several disastrously poor decisions while piloting the ship. Authorities have said he shouldn’t have departed in extreme fog when pilots of six other large vessels decided not to, failed to have a discussion with the ship’s master to review the transit plan and failed to notify the Coast Guard that the ship’s radar was unreliable.
“I know there is a lot of blame to go around,” Illston said. “But, I think Capt. Cota was right in the middle of it.”
About a dozen family and friends from Cota’s hometown of Petaluma crowded into the courtroom to also urge the judge for a more lenient sentence than the 10 months demanded by federal prosecutors.
Teresa Barrett, Cota’s wife, told the judge that the family has spent more than $500,000 on legal fees and faced even more financial punishment because of several lawsuits pending against Cota from fishermen and others seeking to recover expenses caused by the spill.
“We risk losing the only home our sons have known,” she said before breaking down in tears.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Jackson ex-wife shows interest in custody of kids
The Michael Jackson custody issue demonstrates all that is wrong with the way in which this eccentric great man, interfaced with the world and the laws that govern it. If his ex-wife asserts a legitimate claim for custody, it will mark new ground, opening issues as to whether a woman who has terminated her parental rights, should still be given the opportunity to assert them, in absence of better alternatives. Then there is the issue of what rights the true biological parents should have, again when there really is no suitable other person with a better claim.
Should a child be raised by the surviving parent, regardless of a prior custody determination when the other parent dies? If a child better off being raised by an elderly grandparent than its true parent? To do so, the law would have to discard the legal fiction imposed at the time of the termination, but isn’t that the only truly equitable decision?
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2009
Date: 7/2/2009 9:43 PM
ANTHONY MCCARTNEY,AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The future of Michael Jackson’s children was thrown into question Thursday when his ex-wife emerged and won a delay in a custody hearing while she decides whether she wants to raise her two offspring.
It was the first legal move from Deborah Rowe since the entertainer’s death. Jackson’s will asks for his mother, Katherine, to get permanent custody of all three of his children.
Rowe, who met Jackson as a receptionist in the office of his dermatologist, has characterized their relationship as strictly for the purpose of birthing Jackson children. She is the mother of his two oldest children and received $8.5 million in their divorce, according to court records. His youngest child was conceived with a surrogate.
She has spent very little time with her son Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11. But Rowe also has opposed the idea of Katherine Jackson getting custody of her children when it came up in the past.
Rowe’s attorney, Eric M. George, said Thursday she had not decided whether to seek custody.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rescheduled a guardianship hearing for July 13 at the request of attorneys for Rowe and for Katherine Jackson, 79, who has temporary guardianship of her son’s children.
The identity of the surrogate mother of the singer’s youngest child, 7-year-old son Prince Michael II, has never been revealed.
Jackson’s public memorial was set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, according to a press release from the office of the Jackson family’s publicist.
Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, which owns the Staples Center and was Jackson’s promoter, said tickets would be free. He was not sure how they would be distributed.
But Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine said the Jackson family should consider delaying the public memorial to allow more time to plan. He also said the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the money to pay police overtime.
“If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity (at the Staples Center), there is not sufficient room. Now you have a crowd-control problem,” he said. With the July Fourth holiday weekend “it’s the worst time … to work something out.”
Another court hearing will proceed as planned Monday on who will take temporary control of Jackson’s estate. He left all his assets to the Michael Jackson Family Trust.
A person familiar with the details of the trust said it would be shared between his mother, who gets 40 percent, his three children, who together get 40 percent, and charities for children, which would receive 20 percent. The charities will be determined later by the trust.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Authorities also were investigating allegations that the 50-year-old Jackson had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office was helping Los Angeles police investigate the possible involvement of prescription drugs in Jackson’s death.
His Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement is searching a state database that tracks doctors who prescribe controlled substances, how much and to whom.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration also has joined the investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department asked the DEA to help, a law enforcement official in Washington told the AP on condition of anonymity because of the investigation’s sensitivity.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Jackson’s brother Jermaine said he would be “hurt” if toxicology reports showed his younger brother abused prescription drugs.
“In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to,” he said.
___
AP writers Michael R. Blood, Beth Harris in Los Angeles; Michele Salcedo in Washington; contributed to this story.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Should a child be raised by the surviving parent, regardless of a prior custody determination when the other parent dies? If a child better off being raised by an elderly grandparent than its true parent? To do so, the law would have to discard the legal fiction imposed at the time of the termination, but isn’t that the only truly equitable decision?
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2009
Date: 7/2/2009 9:43 PM
ANTHONY MCCARTNEY,AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The future of Michael Jackson’s children was thrown into question Thursday when his ex-wife emerged and won a delay in a custody hearing while she decides whether she wants to raise her two offspring.
It was the first legal move from Deborah Rowe since the entertainer’s death. Jackson’s will asks for his mother, Katherine, to get permanent custody of all three of his children.
Rowe, who met Jackson as a receptionist in the office of his dermatologist, has characterized their relationship as strictly for the purpose of birthing Jackson children. She is the mother of his two oldest children and received $8.5 million in their divorce, according to court records. His youngest child was conceived with a surrogate.
She has spent very little time with her son Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11. But Rowe also has opposed the idea of Katherine Jackson getting custody of her children when it came up in the past.
Rowe’s attorney, Eric M. George, said Thursday she had not decided whether to seek custody.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rescheduled a guardianship hearing for July 13 at the request of attorneys for Rowe and for Katherine Jackson, 79, who has temporary guardianship of her son’s children.
The identity of the surrogate mother of the singer’s youngest child, 7-year-old son Prince Michael II, has never been revealed.
Jackson’s public memorial was set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, according to a press release from the office of the Jackson family’s publicist.
Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, which owns the Staples Center and was Jackson’s promoter, said tickets would be free. He was not sure how they would be distributed.
But Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine said the Jackson family should consider delaying the public memorial to allow more time to plan. He also said the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the money to pay police overtime.
“If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity (at the Staples Center), there is not sufficient room. Now you have a crowd-control problem,” he said. With the July Fourth holiday weekend “it’s the worst time … to work something out.”
Another court hearing will proceed as planned Monday on who will take temporary control of Jackson’s estate. He left all his assets to the Michael Jackson Family Trust.
A person familiar with the details of the trust said it would be shared between his mother, who gets 40 percent, his three children, who together get 40 percent, and charities for children, which would receive 20 percent. The charities will be determined later by the trust.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Authorities also were investigating allegations that the 50-year-old Jackson had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office was helping Los Angeles police investigate the possible involvement of prescription drugs in Jackson’s death.
His Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement is searching a state database that tracks doctors who prescribe controlled substances, how much and to whom.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration also has joined the investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department asked the DEA to help, a law enforcement official in Washington told the AP on condition of anonymity because of the investigation’s sensitivity.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Jackson’s brother Jermaine said he would be “hurt” if toxicology reports showed his younger brother abused prescription drugs.
“In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to,” he said.
___
AP writers Michael R. Blood, Beth Harris in Los Angeles; Michele Salcedo in Washington; contributed to this story.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Train crash probe renews focus on texting dangers
Date: 9/16/2008 4:38 PM
By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer
One day last summer, Jim Messer, a Florida attorney, was nearly run off the road by another car. When he recovered, he says, he was able to see the other driver texting on her cell phone, balancing it on the wheel.
“There’s gotta be a law against this,” Messer thought. But there wasn’t — not in his state, anyway. He’s been working since then to get one passed.
Despite a general belief on the part of researchers and authorities that texting at the wheel, like other driver distractions, could be jeopardizing lives, only five states and the District of Columbia currently ban all drivers from doing it.
Now investigators are looking into whether texting may have played a role in the disastrous California train crash that killed 25. Two teenage train buffs told a TV station that the engineer, who was killed, sent them a text message a minute before the crash. A phone was not found.
For now, there is no data directly tying text messaging to traffic accidents. Though fully 74 percent of Americans aged 18-29 use text messaging, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s a phenomenon that’s only a few years old.
But a 2006 government study found that distracted drivers of all sorts were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes. And everyone knows that checking e-mails or sending a text message, just like talking on a cell phone or playing with the radio, can distract a driver. A researcher who worked on the 2006 study, Charlie Klauer of the Virginia Tech Traffic Institute, says the crash risk was doubled when a driver looked away from the road for two seconds out of six.
“Texting is potentially even more risky than speaking on a cell phone, because you’re not only taking your mind off the road — you’re taking your eyes off the road,” argues Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
But it’s very hard to prove, in the aftermath of a crash, that texting or e-mailing was the cause. Police in upstate New York found a series of messages sent and received from 17-year-old Bailey Goodman’s phone just before her sport utility vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer one night in June last year, killing her and four friends who’d all just graduated from high school. But they couldn’t tell if she was the one using her phone.
It was enough for a state senator to propose a bill banning texting while driving in New York, where using a hand-held cell phone has been banned since 2001. The bill remains in committee. Only Alaska, Washington, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and the District of Columbia currently ban all drivers from texting, according to the IIHS; 12 other states have partial bans, such as drivers under 18 or bus drivers.
One emergency room doctor says he suspects most people don’t initiate text messages while driving — but can’t help themselves from responding to them.
“It’s hard to ignore the temptation,” says Dr. Mark Melrose of Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J., a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. “You think, this might be important, I’d better check. You know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you do it anyway.”
That’s an apt way to describe the habits of Liz Osaki, 23, who works at an advertising agency on the outskirts of Boston. Her daily commute is about an hour each way. And yes, she texts at the wheel, though mostly when she’s in traffic, or stopped at a light. Even when she’s not, “I promise I am still looking at the road,” she says.
The only mishaps Osaki reports are occasionally missing the moment a light turns from red to green, or not realizing as fast as she should that cars in front have braked suddenly. She argues that texting can actually be safer in the car than speaking on a cell phone.
“I think it’s less distracting because when I’m texting, I can always just throw the phone down,” she says. “You can’t do that in the middle of a phone conversation.”
More to the point is the fact that for Osaki, like many young Americans, texting has become second nature, often a preferred means of communication to speaking on the phone.
“I text to ask simple questions, and get simple answers,” she says. “Most of my friends don’t even like to check their voicemail.” Her recent phone bill was proof of Osaki’s habit: She had 1,000 text messages on it, she says. That’s more than 30 messages a day.
That’s nothing compared to Lily Brynes, a 17-year-old New Yorker who figures she texts about 100 times a day on weekends, less so during school. It’s almost as if talking on the phone has become awkward, she says — “and my whole generation hates voice mail.”
The teenager adds that even fights are conducted on the phone, in carefully calibrated language. “‘Love you’ — that’s a normal signoff between female friends,” she says. “If she says ‘Love u,’ she’s busy.’” And the initials “l” and “y”? “That means she’s angry.”
Lily’s mother, Karen Binder-Brynes, is in awe. “It’s amazing how this generation has created an entirely new language,” she says. And texting is clearly the territory of the young. The Pew Research survey, conducted in the spring, showed that while 78 percent of all adults own a cell phone, only 24 percent of those over 50 used it to text, and only 6 percent of those over 65.
Moreover, though three-quarters of the 18-29 age group use texting, the number is surely much higher among teenagers, who weren’t counted. Researchers add that U.S. teenagers still lag behind those overseas. An amazing 98 percent of teens in the developed world engage in texting, says Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.
“What Americans don’t realize quite yet is just what a natural, ingrained part of communication texting is,” says Cole. He notes that teenagers in some countries even prefer to write papers and letters on a 12-button phone keypad rather than the usual computer keyboard.
Does this mean that teens of the future will be able to text in their cars, without even looking down at their phones? Not likely. And safety advocates like Messer, in Florida, are pushing their legislatures to adopt bans across the country.
But Osaki, for one, is skeptical that such bans can work.
“I’m not really sure how it could be enforced,” she says. “And I feel like the younger generation is pretty good at getting away with stuff like this. I know how we work.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer
One day last summer, Jim Messer, a Florida attorney, was nearly run off the road by another car. When he recovered, he says, he was able to see the other driver texting on her cell phone, balancing it on the wheel.
“There’s gotta be a law against this,” Messer thought. But there wasn’t — not in his state, anyway. He’s been working since then to get one passed.
Despite a general belief on the part of researchers and authorities that texting at the wheel, like other driver distractions, could be jeopardizing lives, only five states and the District of Columbia currently ban all drivers from doing it.
Now investigators are looking into whether texting may have played a role in the disastrous California train crash that killed 25. Two teenage train buffs told a TV station that the engineer, who was killed, sent them a text message a minute before the crash. A phone was not found.
For now, there is no data directly tying text messaging to traffic accidents. Though fully 74 percent of Americans aged 18-29 use text messaging, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s a phenomenon that’s only a few years old.
But a 2006 government study found that distracted drivers of all sorts were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes. And everyone knows that checking e-mails or sending a text message, just like talking on a cell phone or playing with the radio, can distract a driver. A researcher who worked on the 2006 study, Charlie Klauer of the Virginia Tech Traffic Institute, says the crash risk was doubled when a driver looked away from the road for two seconds out of six.
“Texting is potentially even more risky than speaking on a cell phone, because you’re not only taking your mind off the road — you’re taking your eyes off the road,” argues Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
But it’s very hard to prove, in the aftermath of a crash, that texting or e-mailing was the cause. Police in upstate New York found a series of messages sent and received from 17-year-old Bailey Goodman’s phone just before her sport utility vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer one night in June last year, killing her and four friends who’d all just graduated from high school. But they couldn’t tell if she was the one using her phone.
It was enough for a state senator to propose a bill banning texting while driving in New York, where using a hand-held cell phone has been banned since 2001. The bill remains in committee. Only Alaska, Washington, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and the District of Columbia currently ban all drivers from texting, according to the IIHS; 12 other states have partial bans, such as drivers under 18 or bus drivers.
One emergency room doctor says he suspects most people don’t initiate text messages while driving — but can’t help themselves from responding to them.
“It’s hard to ignore the temptation,” says Dr. Mark Melrose of Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J., a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. “You think, this might be important, I’d better check. You know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you do it anyway.”
That’s an apt way to describe the habits of Liz Osaki, 23, who works at an advertising agency on the outskirts of Boston. Her daily commute is about an hour each way. And yes, she texts at the wheel, though mostly when she’s in traffic, or stopped at a light. Even when she’s not, “I promise I am still looking at the road,” she says.
The only mishaps Osaki reports are occasionally missing the moment a light turns from red to green, or not realizing as fast as she should that cars in front have braked suddenly. She argues that texting can actually be safer in the car than speaking on a cell phone.
“I think it’s less distracting because when I’m texting, I can always just throw the phone down,” she says. “You can’t do that in the middle of a phone conversation.”
More to the point is the fact that for Osaki, like many young Americans, texting has become second nature, often a preferred means of communication to speaking on the phone.
“I text to ask simple questions, and get simple answers,” she says. “Most of my friends don’t even like to check their voicemail.” Her recent phone bill was proof of Osaki’s habit: She had 1,000 text messages on it, she says. That’s more than 30 messages a day.
That’s nothing compared to Lily Brynes, a 17-year-old New Yorker who figures she texts about 100 times a day on weekends, less so during school. It’s almost as if talking on the phone has become awkward, she says — “and my whole generation hates voice mail.”
The teenager adds that even fights are conducted on the phone, in carefully calibrated language. “‘Love you’ — that’s a normal signoff between female friends,” she says. “If she says ‘Love u,’ she’s busy.’” And the initials “l” and “y”? “That means she’s angry.”
Lily’s mother, Karen Binder-Brynes, is in awe. “It’s amazing how this generation has created an entirely new language,” she says. And texting is clearly the territory of the young. The Pew Research survey, conducted in the spring, showed that while 78 percent of all adults own a cell phone, only 24 percent of those over 50 used it to text, and only 6 percent of those over 65.
Moreover, though three-quarters of the 18-29 age group use texting, the number is surely much higher among teenagers, who weren’t counted. Researchers add that U.S. teenagers still lag behind those overseas. An amazing 98 percent of teens in the developed world engage in texting, says Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.
“What Americans don’t realize quite yet is just what a natural, ingrained part of communication texting is,” says Cole. He notes that teenagers in some countries even prefer to write papers and letters on a 12-button phone keypad rather than the usual computer keyboard.
Does this mean that teens of the future will be able to text in their cars, without even looking down at their phones? Not likely. And safety advocates like Messer, in Florida, are pushing their legislatures to adopt bans across the country.
But Osaki, for one, is skeptical that such bans can work.
“I’m not really sure how it could be enforced,” she says. “And I feel like the younger generation is pretty good at getting away with stuff like this. I know how we work.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Feds: Doomed crew in SC crash thought tire blew
Date: 9/21/2008 6:33 PM
By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press Writer
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The doomed crew piloting a Learjet that crashed on takeoff, killing four people and injuring two popular musicians, thought a tire blew as they hurtled down the runway and struggled unsuccessfully to stop the plane, a federal safety official said Sunday.
National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said a cockpit voice recording of the Friday night crash indicates the crew tried to abort the takeoff, but then signaled the efforts were failing.
“The crew reacted to a sound that was consistent with a tire blowout,” Hersman said.
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM remained in critical but stable condition Sunday; one of their doctors said he expected them to fully recover.
Two of the musicians’ close friends and the plane’s pilot and co-pilot were killed when it shot off the end of the runway, ripped through a fence and crossed a highway. It came to rest on an embankment a quarter-mile from the end of the runway, engulfed in flames.
Hersman said no cause of the crash has been determined and the investigation is ongoing. She did say that pieces of tire were recovered about 2,800 feet from where the plane started its takeoff. The runway is 8,600 feet long.
The plane was traveling at least 92 mph, its minimum takeoff speed, when the crew thought the tire burst, Hersman said.
One aviation expert said the crew would have had just moments to abort or lift off because such a Learjet needs more than 5,000 feet of runway to get in the air. If the plane hit about 138 mph, which can happen quickly during takeoff, the crew would have run out of runway, said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the federal Transportation Department.
“If you have to abort a takeoff because of a problem with the plane, you don’t have a lot of runway left because it uses up so much just on its takeoff roll,” Schiavo said.
The jet, which was headed for Van Nuys, Calif., is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a California-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, Hersman said.
Pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., died in the crash. Also killed were Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles. Baker was an assistant to Barker and Still was a security guard for the musician.
Investigators said they want to speak with Barker and Goldstein for their accounts of the crash, including how they survived. One witness said he discovered the musicians in the street near the fiery wreck as they frantically tried to douse their burning clothes.
Hersman said officials will give the men more time to recuperate. “They’re the ones that are going to be able to give us the best firsthand knowledge,” she said.
Dr. Fred Mullins, medical director of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, said the two suffered second- and third-degree burns but had no other injuries from the crash and are in overall good health.
“Anybody who can survive a plane crash is pretty lucky,” Mullins told reporters during a news conference Sunday morning.
Barker was burned on his torso and lower body and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, was burned on an arm and a portion of his scalp, according to a statement from the musicians’ families released by the hospital. Such injuries can take a year to fully heal, however Mullins said he didn’t think it would take that long.
Several fans visited the hospital over the weekend. One carried a sign that read: “Get Well Travis.”
“I was just shocked when I first heard it and I knew that I had to do something,” said Ryan Meadows, a 19-year-old college student from Augusta.
Barker and Goldstein had performed a together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia on Friday night. The show, which included performances by former Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell and singer Gavin DeGraw, drew about 10,000 people to a neighborhood near the University of South Carolina.
Barker, 32, was one of the more colorful members of the multiplatinum-selling punk rock band Blink-182, whose biggest album was 1999′s CD “Enema of the State” and sold more than 5 million copies in the United States alone.
After Blink-182 disbanded in 2005, Barker went on to form the rock band (+44) — pronounced “plus forty-four.” He also starred in the MTV reality series “Meet the Barkers” with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The show documented the former couple’s lavish wedding and home life. Their later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites.
Goldstein, 35, is a popular DJ for hire who at one time was engaged to Nicole Richie and dated singer/actress Mandy Moore. While he became a gossip favorite for his romances, he draws respect from music aficionados for his DJ skills.
Barker and Goldstein performed as part of the house band at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.
Associated Press Writer Page Ivey in Augusta, Ga., contributed to this report.
On the Net:
http://www.djam.com/
http://www.gavindegraw.com/
http://www.blink182.com/
http://www.helicopter-law.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press Writer
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The doomed crew piloting a Learjet that crashed on takeoff, killing four people and injuring two popular musicians, thought a tire blew as they hurtled down the runway and struggled unsuccessfully to stop the plane, a federal safety official said Sunday.
National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said a cockpit voice recording of the Friday night crash indicates the crew tried to abort the takeoff, but then signaled the efforts were failing.
“The crew reacted to a sound that was consistent with a tire blowout,” Hersman said.
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM remained in critical but stable condition Sunday; one of their doctors said he expected them to fully recover.
Two of the musicians’ close friends and the plane’s pilot and co-pilot were killed when it shot off the end of the runway, ripped through a fence and crossed a highway. It came to rest on an embankment a quarter-mile from the end of the runway, engulfed in flames.
Hersman said no cause of the crash has been determined and the investigation is ongoing. She did say that pieces of tire were recovered about 2,800 feet from where the plane started its takeoff. The runway is 8,600 feet long.
The plane was traveling at least 92 mph, its minimum takeoff speed, when the crew thought the tire burst, Hersman said.
One aviation expert said the crew would have had just moments to abort or lift off because such a Learjet needs more than 5,000 feet of runway to get in the air. If the plane hit about 138 mph, which can happen quickly during takeoff, the crew would have run out of runway, said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the federal Transportation Department.
“If you have to abort a takeoff because of a problem with the plane, you don’t have a lot of runway left because it uses up so much just on its takeoff roll,” Schiavo said.
The jet, which was headed for Van Nuys, Calif., is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a California-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, Hersman said.
Pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., died in the crash. Also killed were Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles. Baker was an assistant to Barker and Still was a security guard for the musician.
Investigators said they want to speak with Barker and Goldstein for their accounts of the crash, including how they survived. One witness said he discovered the musicians in the street near the fiery wreck as they frantically tried to douse their burning clothes.
Hersman said officials will give the men more time to recuperate. “They’re the ones that are going to be able to give us the best firsthand knowledge,” she said.
Dr. Fred Mullins, medical director of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, said the two suffered second- and third-degree burns but had no other injuries from the crash and are in overall good health.
“Anybody who can survive a plane crash is pretty lucky,” Mullins told reporters during a news conference Sunday morning.
Barker was burned on his torso and lower body and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, was burned on an arm and a portion of his scalp, according to a statement from the musicians’ families released by the hospital. Such injuries can take a year to fully heal, however Mullins said he didn’t think it would take that long.
Several fans visited the hospital over the weekend. One carried a sign that read: “Get Well Travis.”
“I was just shocked when I first heard it and I knew that I had to do something,” said Ryan Meadows, a 19-year-old college student from Augusta.
Barker and Goldstein had performed a together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia on Friday night. The show, which included performances by former Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell and singer Gavin DeGraw, drew about 10,000 people to a neighborhood near the University of South Carolina.
Barker, 32, was one of the more colorful members of the multiplatinum-selling punk rock band Blink-182, whose biggest album was 1999′s CD “Enema of the State” and sold more than 5 million copies in the United States alone.
After Blink-182 disbanded in 2005, Barker went on to form the rock band (+44) — pronounced “plus forty-four.” He also starred in the MTV reality series “Meet the Barkers” with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The show documented the former couple’s lavish wedding and home life. Their later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites.
Goldstein, 35, is a popular DJ for hire who at one time was engaged to Nicole Richie and dated singer/actress Mandy Moore. While he became a gossip favorite for his romances, he draws respect from music aficionados for his DJ skills.
Barker and Goldstein performed as part of the house band at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.
Associated Press Writer Page Ivey in Augusta, Ga., contributed to this report.
On the Net:
http://www.djam.com/
http://www.gavindegraw.com/
http://www.blink182.com/
http://www.helicopter-law.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Car collides with trailer rig in Texas, killing 5
Date: 8/8/2008 12:33 AM
GEORGE WEST, Texas (AP) _ A car collided with a tractor-trailer rig hauling fuel oil on Interstate 37 in South Texas, killing five members of an extended family, authorities said.
San Patricio County Sheriff Leroy Moody said the five victims all were in the car, which caught fire after veering into another lane and colliding with the tanker. The tanker truck did not catch fire and the driver was not injured.
Department of Public Safety Sr. Trooper Gerald Lee Bryant identified the dead as driver Cynthia Perez, 32; Robert Perez Jr., 38; Robert Perez Sr., 60; David Perez, 23; Brittany Perez, 12, all of Corpus Christi. Bryant told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Robert Perez Sr. and Robert Perez Jr. were father and son and that Brittany Perez was Cynthia Perez’s daughter.
The tanker was hauling a load of fuel oil from the Valero refinery in Three Rivers to the Port of Corpus Christi, about 40 miles southeast of the crash site near the small community of Swinney Switch.
The southbound lanes of I-37 remained closed late Thursday, more than nine hours after the crash.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
GEORGE WEST, Texas (AP) _ A car collided with a tractor-trailer rig hauling fuel oil on Interstate 37 in South Texas, killing five members of an extended family, authorities said.
San Patricio County Sheriff Leroy Moody said the five victims all were in the car, which caught fire after veering into another lane and colliding with the tanker. The tanker truck did not catch fire and the driver was not injured.
Department of Public Safety Sr. Trooper Gerald Lee Bryant identified the dead as driver Cynthia Perez, 32; Robert Perez Jr., 38; Robert Perez Sr., 60; David Perez, 23; Brittany Perez, 12, all of Corpus Christi. Bryant told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Robert Perez Sr. and Robert Perez Jr. were father and son and that Brittany Perez was Cynthia Perez’s daughter.
The tanker was hauling a load of fuel oil from the Valero refinery in Three Rivers to the Port of Corpus Christi, about 40 miles southeast of the crash site near the small community of Swinney Switch.
The southbound lanes of I-37 remained closed late Thursday, more than nine hours after the crash.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Crash of illegal charter bus in Texas kills 15
The below AP story is a perfect example of why federal transportation regulations and trial lawyers make a difference for a safe world. Not only was this accident a direct result of failure to comply with regulations, it is clear that a more diligent approach to safety, would have saved lives. In a world where our government is run by people who think government is bad, only the trial lawyers are there to force those who kill and maim, to pay the consequences.
Another irony, is that tires has become a particularly relevant topic for us and while this tire disaster isn’t quite the same as our Two Tires Done Wrong campaign, it is illustrative of how dangerous doing tires the wrong way, can be. The manufacturer’s recommendations should always be followed with tires (but don’t assume that the installer’s of your tires are doing so.) See
“>http://fishtail.tv
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Date: 8/9/2008 12:17 AM
By LINDA STEWART BALL and DANNY ROBBINS
Associated Press Writer
SHERMAN, Texas (AP) _ An unlicensed charter bus carrying a Vietnamese-American Catholic group on a pilgrimage to a religious festival blew an illegally treaded tire and skidded off a highway early Friday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
The bus, en route from Houston to Missouri with 55 people aboard, smashed into a guardrail and tipped over along the edge of the road at about 12:45 a.m., crushing one side of the vehicle and scattering luggage, clothes, a sandal and a blood-soaked pillow across the grass and pavement.
Ten people were taken to the hospital by helicopter, and some were in critical condition late Friday.
Passenger Leha Nguyen, 45, said passengers were dozing off when she heard a noise and screaming, and opened her eyes.
“Somebody was laying on my legs. A lady next to me, she had her arm crushed up. The lady who was on my left, a man was on top of her,” she said at a hospital. She said nobody had been wearing seat belts, and people were strewn all over. A television had fallen on one person.
“I think I’m the luckiest one out of most people,” she said.
Most of the passengers were from the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and two other mostly Vietnamese congregations in Houston. They were on their way to Carthage, Mo., for an annual open-air festival honoring the Virgin Mary.
The Marian Days pilgrimage, begun in the late 1970s, attracts thousands of Catholics of Vietnamese descent and includes a large outdoor Mass each day, entertainment and camping at night.
“Please pray for us,” said Holly Nguyen, a 38-year-old church member who was following behind the bus in a car but did not see the wreck. She anxiously awaited word of her father, who was on the bus when it ran off the road about 65 miles north of Dallas, close to the Oklahoma line.
The right front tire, which blew out, had been retreaded in violation of safety standards, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety board. The tread had separated from the tire itself in a process called delamination.
“If there is a loss of pressure or the tire becomes delaminated, it’s much more difficult to control the vehicle,” she said.
It is legal to retread such tires but not on the axle that steers the bus, Hersman said. The driver was a 52-year-old who had a commercial license but whose medical certification had expired she said.
The driver was reported in stable condition.
The bus operator, Iguala BusMex Inc. of Houston, had applied in June for a federal license to operate as a charter but was still awaiting approval, according to online records.
The company recently filed incorporation papers, listing the same owner and address as Angel Tours Inc., which was forced by federal regulators to take its vehicles out of interstate service June 23 after an unsatisfactory review, records show. Details of the review were not in the online records.
Neither entity is currently authorized to operate as a carrier in interstate commerce, said John H. Hill, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“We have requested law enforcement agencies to be alert for any buses being operated by Angel Tours or Iguala BusMex, since they are not authorized to operate legally,” he said in a written statement. “If found on the road, we want law enforcement to immediately stop and place the vehicles out of service.”
In a Houston building with a weathered Angel Tours plywood sign, a man declined to identify himself Friday or comment to The Associated Press about the wreck. An outgoing phone message at Angel Tours late Friday said the voicemail box was full.
The tragedy was the nation’s deadliest bus crash since 2004, when 15 people were killed in a wreck in Arkansas on their way to Mississippi’s casinos. In 2005 near Dallas, 23 people were killed when a bus carrying nursing home residents away from Hurricane Rita caught fire while in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The Rev. Joseph Vu, a priest at the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and vicar for the 30,000 to 35,000 Vietnamese Catholics in the region, was not on the trip but arrived at a relief station set up for victims’ families at a church in nearby Denison.
“I’m going to tell people we don’t blame anybody,” he said. “This happened like Katrina, like Challenger. What we can do is pray.” He added: “God will comfort them. Tell people to keep trusting in God. Do not blame anybody. Do not ask why. Now we just help each other to get through this.”
A sobbing Mary Nguyen, a member of the Vietnamese Martyrs Church for more than 10 years, learned that a close friend had died. “She was just a very good person,” she said. “The church is like one big family here. We’re very close. We stick together.”
About 900 people gathered Friday night at Vietnamese Martyrs Church for a Mass at which Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo appeared.
“We are here with them to pray for those who are lost and for God’s consolation in this time of grief and loss,” DiNardo said. “The Vietnamese Catholic culture is very strong. A lot of those who have come here have been through a great deal just to get to this country. They’ve always preserved their Catholic faith. This is a trial. This is a challenge.”
DiNardo said the losses, which included church leaders, were “incomprehensible.”
One of the victims was identified as Hoangy Thi Dung, 71, of Houston, who was pronounced dead by a Grayson County justice of the peace. Authorities had not released the identity of other victims.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anabelle Garay in Sherman; Regina L. Burns, Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth; and Michael Graczyk and Monica Rhor in Houston.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Another irony, is that tires has become a particularly relevant topic for us and while this tire disaster isn’t quite the same as our Two Tires Done Wrong campaign, it is illustrative of how dangerous doing tires the wrong way, can be. The manufacturer’s recommendations should always be followed with tires (but don’t assume that the installer’s of your tires are doing so.) See
“>http://fishtail.tv
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Date: 8/9/2008 12:17 AM
By LINDA STEWART BALL and DANNY ROBBINS
Associated Press Writer
SHERMAN, Texas (AP) _ An unlicensed charter bus carrying a Vietnamese-American Catholic group on a pilgrimage to a religious festival blew an illegally treaded tire and skidded off a highway early Friday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
The bus, en route from Houston to Missouri with 55 people aboard, smashed into a guardrail and tipped over along the edge of the road at about 12:45 a.m., crushing one side of the vehicle and scattering luggage, clothes, a sandal and a blood-soaked pillow across the grass and pavement.
Ten people were taken to the hospital by helicopter, and some were in critical condition late Friday.
Passenger Leha Nguyen, 45, said passengers were dozing off when she heard a noise and screaming, and opened her eyes.
“Somebody was laying on my legs. A lady next to me, she had her arm crushed up. The lady who was on my left, a man was on top of her,” she said at a hospital. She said nobody had been wearing seat belts, and people were strewn all over. A television had fallen on one person.
“I think I’m the luckiest one out of most people,” she said.
Most of the passengers were from the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and two other mostly Vietnamese congregations in Houston. They were on their way to Carthage, Mo., for an annual open-air festival honoring the Virgin Mary.
The Marian Days pilgrimage, begun in the late 1970s, attracts thousands of Catholics of Vietnamese descent and includes a large outdoor Mass each day, entertainment and camping at night.
“Please pray for us,” said Holly Nguyen, a 38-year-old church member who was following behind the bus in a car but did not see the wreck. She anxiously awaited word of her father, who was on the bus when it ran off the road about 65 miles north of Dallas, close to the Oklahoma line.
The right front tire, which blew out, had been retreaded in violation of safety standards, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety board. The tread had separated from the tire itself in a process called delamination.
“If there is a loss of pressure or the tire becomes delaminated, it’s much more difficult to control the vehicle,” she said.
It is legal to retread such tires but not on the axle that steers the bus, Hersman said. The driver was a 52-year-old who had a commercial license but whose medical certification had expired she said.
The driver was reported in stable condition.
The bus operator, Iguala BusMex Inc. of Houston, had applied in June for a federal license to operate as a charter but was still awaiting approval, according to online records.
The company recently filed incorporation papers, listing the same owner and address as Angel Tours Inc., which was forced by federal regulators to take its vehicles out of interstate service June 23 after an unsatisfactory review, records show. Details of the review were not in the online records.
Neither entity is currently authorized to operate as a carrier in interstate commerce, said John H. Hill, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“We have requested law enforcement agencies to be alert for any buses being operated by Angel Tours or Iguala BusMex, since they are not authorized to operate legally,” he said in a written statement. “If found on the road, we want law enforcement to immediately stop and place the vehicles out of service.”
In a Houston building with a weathered Angel Tours plywood sign, a man declined to identify himself Friday or comment to The Associated Press about the wreck. An outgoing phone message at Angel Tours late Friday said the voicemail box was full.
The tragedy was the nation’s deadliest bus crash since 2004, when 15 people were killed in a wreck in Arkansas on their way to Mississippi’s casinos. In 2005 near Dallas, 23 people were killed when a bus carrying nursing home residents away from Hurricane Rita caught fire while in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The Rev. Joseph Vu, a priest at the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and vicar for the 30,000 to 35,000 Vietnamese Catholics in the region, was not on the trip but arrived at a relief station set up for victims’ families at a church in nearby Denison.
“I’m going to tell people we don’t blame anybody,” he said. “This happened like Katrina, like Challenger. What we can do is pray.” He added: “God will comfort them. Tell people to keep trusting in God. Do not blame anybody. Do not ask why. Now we just help each other to get through this.”
A sobbing Mary Nguyen, a member of the Vietnamese Martyrs Church for more than 10 years, learned that a close friend had died. “She was just a very good person,” she said. “The church is like one big family here. We’re very close. We stick together.”
About 900 people gathered Friday night at Vietnamese Martyrs Church for a Mass at which Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo appeared.
“We are here with them to pray for those who are lost and for God’s consolation in this time of grief and loss,” DiNardo said. “The Vietnamese Catholic culture is very strong. A lot of those who have come here have been through a great deal just to get to this country. They’ve always preserved their Catholic faith. This is a trial. This is a challenge.”
DiNardo said the losses, which included church leaders, were “incomprehensible.”
One of the victims was identified as Hoangy Thi Dung, 71, of Houston, who was pronounced dead by a Grayson County justice of the peace. Authorities had not released the identity of other victims.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anabelle Garay in Sherman; Regina L. Burns, Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth; and Michael Graczyk and Monica Rhor in Houston.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.