Author name: C-CAR

BASSETT >> A collision involving a tractor trailer and a car on the northbound 605 Freeway sent a driver to the hospital on Tuesday.

The crash, which occurred north of Valley Boulevard shortly before 8 a.m., shut down two lanes for nearly an hour.

The California Highway Patrol didn’t yet have details on the cause of the accident.

CHP Officer Pat Gomez said the car overturned several times after impact. Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped driver and transported her by helicopter to a hospital.

He did not know her exact condition, but he said she was not critical.

CHP Officer Monica Posada said a SigAlert was issued at 8:18 a.m. for the carpool lane and the number one lane. At one point, all northbound lanes were closed so the helicopter can land.

The CHP canceled the SigAlert at 9:15 a.m.

MENTONE >> Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 20-year-old Mentone man on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon not a firearm after they say he struck a deputy’s vehicle with his motor bike over the weekend.

Family members, however, say it was a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy who caused the crash, pointing to a YouTube video that shows a deputy’s vehicle colliding with the motorcyclist Saturday afternoon.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said Monday that deputies arrested Jon Dundee Hutchinson, 20, of Mentone after a 10-minute pursuit that began Saturday when a deputy saw Hutchinson pull out of the parking lot of the Mill Creek Cattle Company steakhouse on an unregistered dirt bike.

The deputy attempted to pull Hutchinson over, but he fled traveling at a high rate of speed, Miller said.

“He was driving on the wrong side of the road when the motorcyclist struck the patrol car,” Miller said.

In a release, Miller noted the lights were flashing and the siren was on the deputy’s vehicle.

“He travelled on the wrong side of the road numerous times, running stop signs and fleeing into the orange groves,” in a statement from the department.

Officials say Hutchinson was taken to Redlands Community Hospital, where he was evaluated. He suffered minor abrasions.

A bystander recorded the incident on video and has since posted it to YouTube. The shaky, nearly four-minute video shows the end of the pursuit, when the patrol car and the motorcycle collide on Opal Avenue.

In the recording, witnesses can be heard shouting and swearing: “Why the f— did they hit him?” “Hey, you guys are chumps!”

On Monday, Hutchinson’s mother, Jaymie Branham, said her son suffered a neck fracture in the incident. She said the pursuit occurred after her son made an obscene gesture at a deputy.

“Did they have to use such deadly force?” she said in an interview Monday. “By no means should he almost lose his life because of this. I don’t understand why they had to be so aggressive.”

In the video, it’s unclear how the collision occurred, and Branham said she has not heard from the sheriff’s department.

“They haven’t honestly explained anything to us,” she said.

Miller said she did not know if a dash camera was installed in the deputy’s vehicle.

Hutchinson is being held at West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident, Miller said.

PHILADELPHIA >> Amtrak trains began rolling on the busy Northeast Corridor early Monday, the first time in almost a week after a deadly crash in Philadelphia, and officials vowed to have safer trains and tracks while investigators worked to determine the cause of the derailment.

Amtrak resumed service along the corridor with a 5:30 a.m. southbound train leaving New York City. The first northbound train, scheduled to leave Philadelphia at 5:53 a.m., was delayed and pulled out of 30th Street Station at 6:07 a.m. Both trains arrived at their destinations about 30 minutes behind schedule.

About three dozen passengers boarded the New York-bound train in Philadelphia, and Mayor Michael Nutter was on hand to see the passengers and train off.

All Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services also resumed.

Amtrak officials said Sunday that trains along the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston would return to service in “complete compliance” with federal safety orders following last week’s deadly derailment.

Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said staff and crew worked around the clock to restore service following Tuesday night’s crash that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.

Boardman said Sunday that Amtrak would be offering a “safer service.”

In Philadelphia on Monday, Nutter stood on the platform, greeting passengers and crew members. He pulled out his cellphone and took pictures as the train rolled out.

“It’s great to be back,” said Christian Milton of Philadelphia. “I’ve never had any real problems with Amtrak. I’ve been traveling it for over 10 years. There’s one accident in 10 years. Something invariably is going to happen somewhere along the lines. I’m not worried about it.”

Milton said he’d think about the victims and maybe say a prayer as the train navigated the curve where the derailment happened.

Tom Carberry, of Philadelphia, praised the agencies involved in restoring service.

“My biggest takeaway was the under-promise and over-deliver, and the surprise of having it come back this morning when that wasn’t expected,” Carberry said. “That was a good thing for Amtrak.”

At New York City’s Penn Station early Monday, police with dogs flanked the escalator as a smattering of passengers showed their tickets to a broadly smiling Amtrak agent and headed down to the platform.

A sign outside the train flashed “All Aboard” in red letters.

The conductor gave a broad all-clear wave, stepped inside and the train glided out of the station.

Passenger Raphael Kelly of New York, looking relaxed, said he was “feeling fine” and had “no worries.”

Kelly, who takes Amtrak to Philadelphia weekly, said with a smile that if he did have any concerns, “I have to get over it.”

Amtrak spokesman Craig Schultz said it was important to restore service, calling the Northeast Corridor “an economic engine here on the East Coast.”

Almost 20 people injured in the train crash remain in hospitals, five in critical condition. All are expected to survive.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have focused on the acceleration of the train as it approached the curve, finally reaching 106 mph as it entered the 50-mph stretch north of central Philadelphia and only managing to slow down slightly before the crash.

The Amtrak engineer, who was among those injured in the crash, has told authorities that he does not recall anything in the few minutes before it happened.

Associated Press writers Kiley Armstrong in New York City and Shawn Marsh in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

RIVERSIDE >> Authorities say one of the six U.S. Marines aboard a helicopter that crashed during a relief mission in earthquake-hit Nepal was identified as a 30-year-old from Riverside County.

A joint military task force said Sunday that Sgt. Eric M. Seaman was one of six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese soldiers who died when their helicopter crashed May 12.

The wreckage of the UH-1 “Huey” was found Friday following days of intense searching in the mountains northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

Seaman enlisted in the Marines in 2009. He served with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Camp Pendleton.

The Press-Enterprise reports that small American flags were posted in the front yard of Seaman’s home in Murrieta on Sunday. A sign near the door asked for privacy for the family.

INDUSTRY >> Coroner’s officials Sunday released the named of a Baldwin Park man and an Ontario woman who died when the car they were passengers in left the roadway and struck a tree along the 60 Freeway early Saturday.

Rafael Flores Reinoso, 49, of Baldwin Park and Michelle Alvarez, 23, of Ontario, died at the scene of the 2:40 a.m. crash along the eastbound 60 Freeway, just west of the 605 Freeway, in an unincorporated county area near Industry, Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Fred Corrall said.

They were passengers in a 2006 Scion tC being driven by a 24-year-old Ontario man that veered from traffic lanes and struck a tree along a gore point, California Highway Patrol officials said.

The driver and another passenger, described as a 45-year-old Ontario woman, were hospitalized with major injuries, according to the CHP. The cause of the crash remained under investigation.

KATHMANDU, Nepal >> The bodies of six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese soldiers who were aboard a Marine helicopter that crashed during a relief mission in earthquake-hit Nepal have been identified, officials said Sunday.

The wreckage of the UH-1 “Huey” was found Friday following days of intense searching in the mountains northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. The first three charred bodies were retrieved Friday by Nepalese and U.S. military teams, and the rest were found Saturday.

The U.S. Marines who were killed were Capt. Dustin R. Lukasiewicz, from Nebraska, Capt. Christopher L. Norgren, from Kansas, Sgt. Ward M. Johnson IV, from Florida, Sgt. Eric M. Seaman, from California, Cpl. Sara A. Medina, from Illinois, and Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Hug, from Arizona, according to a statement from the U.S. military joint task force in Okinawa, Japan.

Nepal’s army identified its soldiers as Tapendra Rawal and Basanta Titara, and said all eight bodies have been flown to Kathmandu.

The U.S. relief mission was deployed after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, killing more than 8,200 people. A magnitude-7.3 quake struck the country on Tuesday, killing at least 117 people and injuring about 2,800.

The helicopter went missing Tuesday while delivering rice and tarps in Charikot, the area worst hit by that day’s quake. It had dropped off supplies in one location and was en route to a second site when contact was lost.

The cause of the crash has not been determined. U.S. military officials have said that an Indian helicopter in the air nearby heard radio chatter from the Huey aircraft about a possible fuel problem.

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.

INDUSTRY >> A Baldwin Park man and an Ontario woman died early Saturday when the car they were passengers in veered off the roadway and struck a tree along the 60 Freeway in an unincorporated county area near Industry, authorities said.

Paramedics pronounced the 49-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman dead at the scene, officials said. Their names were not released pending notification of family members, according to Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.

A 24-year-old Ontario man who was driving the car and an Ontario woman also riding as a passenger suffered major injuries in the 2:40 a.m. crash on the eastbound 60 Freeway, just west of the 605 Freeway, Officer T. Kinzler of the California Highway Patrol’s East Los Angeles office said in a written statement.

The 2006 Scion TC was traveling at high speed prior to the crash, Kinzler said.

“For unknown reasons, (the driver) lost control of the vehicle and traveled in a southerly direction across all lanes,” the officer said. “The vehicle traveled into the dirt gore point and collided with a tree.”

Any witnesses to the crash can reach the CHP’s East Los Angeles Office at 323-980-4600.

POTISKUM, Nigeria >> A teenage suicide bomber blew herself up and killed seven other people Saturday outside a bustling bus station in the northeast Nigerian town of Damaturu, the state medical director said of the latest in a string of attacks this week by Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram extremists.

Thirty-three people were seriously injured and are being treated at the hospital, said Yobe state’s medical director Garba Musa Fika. Seven are in critical condition and could die if they are not moved to specialist hospitals, according to a nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to reporters.

Most victims are women and children among hawkers who sell smoked fish and packets of water at the exit gate to Damaturu Central Motor Park, he said.

The attack comes two weeks after Nigeria’s military said it destroyed about 20 insurgent camps and freed some 700 kidnapped women and children in the Sambisa Forest, where they said the main insurgent fighting force was trapped.

But hundreds of militants tried to attack the biggest military base in northeastern Nigeria on Wednesday night but were repelled by troops at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and the most populous city in the northeast.

On Friday, Boko Haram seized back the border town of Marte, officials said.

Maiduguri is some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of the nearest reaches of the Sambisa Forest and Marte is even further north.

A week ago, a gunman and suicide bomber attacked a business school in Potiskum, near Damaturu, killing a student and leaving many injured.

A multinational offensive by Nigeria and its neighbors has driven the extremists from all northeastern towns in a 14-week-long offensive. But the Nigerians appear to have bogged down in the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram has laid land mines and booby traps.

Thousands have died in the nearly 6-year-old Islamic uprising, about 10,000 last year alone, and more than 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes, some across borders.

___

Umar reported from Maiduguri, Nigeria and Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed from Lagos, Nigeria.

DIAMOND BAR >> The driver of big rig was seriously injured Friday morning after his truck hit a stalled truck on the east 60 Freeway.

The 1:23 a.m. collision east of Grand Avenue shut down most of the eastbound lanes for nearly seven hours, causing traffic to back up.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike Maehr said a Freightliner truck stalled in the No. 3 lane of the freeway possibly because of engine trouble.

The seriously injured driver was traveling 50 mph in the same lane and said he didn’t see the stalled Freightliner, which had its hazard lights on, before the collision.

Maehr said debris hit a car passing in the next lane. He described the vehicle only as a Honda.

Los Angeles County firefighters extricated the 42-year-old Chino man who was driving the stalled truck. Maehr said the man’s injuries included a broken femur and complaint of pain. He was transported driver to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center in serious condition.

He said the other truck driver, a 50-year-old Baldwin Park man, and the 22-year-old Diamond Bar woman driving the car weren’t injured.

All but the carpool lane were closed. One eastbound lane reopened at 4:48 a.m. The other lanes reopened shortly before 8 a.m.