Thursday, May 31, 2007

A tanker truck travelling Northbound on Route 30 with 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel hit a guardrail, veered off the road and overturned into the West River near Newfane, Vermont. The West River is a tributary of the Connecticut River. The driver was ejected and killed, while the truck’s tank ruptured.

The truck came to rest partially submerged in the river on its right side and immediately began leaking its payload. The driver has been identified as 30-year-old Eduard Lashway of Guilford. The vehicle was owned by local company Barrows & Fisher Oil Co. of Brattleboro.

HazMat crews and Brattleboro Fire Department divers worked with booms to try to contain the oil leaking into the river. Route 30 was also closed in both directions, and the river closed to water traffic. A total of 100 gallons of fuel leaked into the river but was ultimately contained by HazMat teams.

WMUR reached an unidentified person at Barrows & Fisher, who refused to identify the then-unknown driver and said he had no comment on the accident.

The accident is under investigation.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

General Motors (GM) announced on Tuesday a recall of 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac cars in the US, Mexico, and Canada over problems with the power steering system.

The models, the 2005–2010 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007–2010 Pontiac G5 in the US, the 2005–2006 Pontiac Pursuit in Canada and the 2005–2006 Pontiac G4 in Mexico, were affected by a fault that causes the power steering in the vehicles to fail. The company says that cars can still be safely controlled even after the loss of power steering, although more effort to turn the car would be required.

GM is currently working on developing a fix for the problem, after having conducted an internal investigation for more than a year, beginning last January. In addition to GM’s investigation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also conducted an investigation on the Cobalt, which began in January 2010. The investigation was begun after more than a thousand complaints about the model were received by the agency, including reports of 14 crashes caused by the fault. GM contacted the NHTSA about the problem on Monday.

GM blamed the issues on an external supplier partially owned by Toyota, another company currently in the process of a major recall of more than eight million vehicles. According to GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz, the supplier, which was not named, had not met “all requirements for reliability and durability.” In his comments, given at the Geneva Motor Show, Lutz also said that financial responsibility for the recalls had yet to be determined.

• A Chevrolet Cobalt

• A Pontiac G5

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Operation NANOOK 2008 was held from August 11 to August 25 by the Canadian Forces for the purpose of conducting mock emergency rescue operations for potential maritime disasters in the northeastern Canadian Arctic waters.

Two Canadian navy ships and two airforce planes, a CC-138 Twin Otter and a CP-140 Aurora, took part in the exercises in the Canada’s Arctic. The HMCS Toronto and the Canadian Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson travelled along the Hudson Strait. The Operation extended to Davis Strait, and Frobisher Bay during the annual NANOOK Operation. There have been 18 such humanitarian operations since 2002. As more Arctic ice melts, the ships sail through uncharted waters. Emergency response times were tested for such potential disasters as oil spills, or rescue operations such as responding to cruise ship emergencies.

General Walter Natynczyk, Canada’s chief of Defence staff, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Defence Minister as well as Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Steven Fletcher, Member of Parliament for Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia and Parliamentary Secretary for Health, flew to Iqaluit, Nunavut to officially launch the exercise on August 19, 2008 and observe the process.

In addition to the military exercises, Veterans Affairs Canada held a commemorative event onboard the HMCS Toronto to honour the 55th Anniversary of the Cease Fire in Korea, the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the start of the Last 100 days of the First World War. The inaugural ceremonies were held during Community Day activities in the capital city of Iqaluit, followed by the public panel discussion held on Saturday. The community day ceremonies were organized by participants in Operation NANOOK 2008. The public ceremonies received neither Nunavut politicians nor Inuit leaders.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Former England football manager, Bobby Robson CBE, will undergo surgery to remove a tumour on his brain today.

Bobby Robson is 73-years-old, and has managed various soccer teams such as England, Newcastle United, Ipswich, Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven, Fulham, Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto. Currently, he is employed as a consultant for the Republic of Ireland team, but will miss their opening Euro 2008 qualifier against Germany in Stuttgart on 2 September. He has had cancer surgery 3 times prior.

Bobby Robson said:

“The tumour is in my brain, which sounds bad, but it is in a position where it can be removed relatively easily and it’s extremely small – the size of a grape – which indicates they have caught it early.”

Robson was taken to hospital on 5 August 2006 after complaining about feeling unwell 10 minutes before the start of an Ipswich match. He was discharged on 7 August, and on 20 August it became apparent the incident was due to a brain tumour.