Archive | December 11, 2016
Over 30 dead as Ugandan-registered chemical tanker crashes, explodes, in Kenya
A man looks at the wreckage of a passenger minibus following an accident near Naivasha in Kenya on Sunday after a tanker carrying chemical gas slammed into other vehicles and burst into flames. | AP
More than 30 people died when a tanker carrying flammable materials crashed into other vehicles and burst into flames outside the town of Naivasha in Kenya late Saturday, officials said.
“At 5 a.m. the death toll was 33 but the search is still on,” Pius Masai of Kenya’s National Disaster Unit said Sunday.
He added that rescuers were continuing to comb the area for bodies. Masai said the accident involved “over 11 vehicles burnt” when the tanker rammed into others on the road and caught fire.
Kenya’s Red Cross said the driver lost control of the tanker which then crashed into other vehicles and “burst into flames.”
A passenger minibus and a police truck were among the vehicles gutted by the ferocious flames.
The dead include 11 officers of the General Service Unit, a paramilitary police force.
In a statement issued by Kenya’s State House, President Uhuru Kenyatta said “the tanker responsible for the deaths should not have been on that particular road at that hour” and called for a full investigation into a “tragic breach” of the rules restricting the movement of large trucks on certain roads and at certain times.
The accident occurred at Karai at the bottom of a long slope on the busy Nairobi-Nakuru highway, the main cross-country road leading from Kenya’s capital to the west of the country and on to Uganda.
Police and witnesses said the truck with Ugandan registration plates was traveling fast when it hit a speed bump and then lost control.
At least 50 people injured in the accident have been admitted to a private hospital in Naivasha.
Witnesses described a fireball engulfing the vehicles with passengers inside. After firefighters put out the flames, rescue workers collected bodies from among the wreckage of charred cars strewn across the highway.
“It’s a terrible incident, people are burned, some in their cars and others as they tried to escape,” said a police officer at the scene.
George Rono was driving on the highway when he saw the tanker crash into other vehicles.
“We survived by luck because we saw it happen,” Rono said. “We heard vehicles hooting simultaneously, then a loud burst that was followed by fire, that’s when I swerved my car and jumped out, when fire started spreading, but luckily it didn’t get to where we were.”
Rono’s passenger, who did not want to be named, described the intensity of the blaze.
“The fire was so huge you couldn’t move closer until the fire brigade came and helped put it out. All the vehicles around here were burning,” he said.
Some survivors were treated on the scene by civilians and the Red Cross while others were taken to hospital. Corpses were put in body bags and loaded into pick-up trucks.
“It is like a horror movie,” said Jane Muthoni, a shopkeeper who works close to the scene of the accident and who rushed there to try to help people escape their cars.
“It will haunt me for a long time, imagining that huge fire where people were burning, and now I have seen some seated in their vehicles dead,” she said.
The busy highway is notorious for deadly accidents.
In 2009 more than 100 people were killed and 200 injured on the same road after a gasoline tanker overturned and local people gathered to collect the leaking fuel when a fire ignited.
Given the scale of Saturday’s disaster it is expected that the death toll may rise. The accident comes as Kenya is in the throes of a nationwide doctors’ strike.
Courtesy of japantimes.co.jp
Plane crash kills 2 south of Quebec City, Canada
A small plane with two people aboard crashed in a river south of Quebec City on Saturday afternoon, the Transportation Safety Board said.
The Sûreté du Québec confirmed that both passengers, a 21-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man, have died.
TSB spokesman Chris Krepski said the two-seater Grumman AA-1 went down near Levis, Que. at around 2 p.m Saturday.
Krepski said the safety board was gathering information on the incident but had not immediately sent investigators to the site.
Courtesy of cbc.ca
Plane crash kills pilot in Marengo, USA
The pilot of a home-built, single-engine plane was killed when he crashed into a Marengo cornfield, authorities said Saturday.
The plane crashed sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning. Marengo first responders arrived at the site about 7:30 a.m. Saturday after a passer-by called 911 reporting the downed plane. The plane crashed in a field off Meyer Road just north of Pleasant Grove Road in Marengo.
The pilot was believed to be the only person on board.
The cause of the crash has not been determined, but the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, McHenry County Coroner Anne Majewski said in a news release. The plane was moved to a secure site because of the oncoming winter storm.
Various media outlets identified the plane’s owner as Rob Sherman of Poplar Grove. Sherman recently ran as the Green Party candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 5th District, which includes portions of Cook and DuPage counties. He was a known atheist activist and plane enthusiast.
Majewski said the victim has not been identified.
“An autopsy will be performed Monday morning in the McHenry County Coroner’s Office,” Majewski said in the news release.
“No scientific identification of the victim has been made at this time, so no name can be released until this is accomplished.”
Courtesy of nwherald.com
MAGNITUDE 3.9 FRANCE
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=551983
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 177 km SW of Saint Peter Port, Guernsey / pop: 16,500 / local time: 21:27:23.0 2016-12-11
61 km NW of Quimper, France / pop: 63,900 / local time: 22:27:23.0 2016-12-11
3 km SW of Plabennec, France / pop: 7,600 / local time: 22:27:23.0 2016-12-11
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 177 km SW of Saint Peter Port, Guernsey / pop: 16,500 / local time: 21:27:23.0 2016-12-11
61 km NW of Quimper, France / pop: 63,900 / local time: 22:27:23.0 2016-12-11
3 km SW of Plabennec, France / pop: 7,600 / local time: 22:27:23.0 2016-12-11
Plane crash injures 2 near Franklin airport, USA
Crews responded to an airplane crash that happened Saturday afternoon off the runway in a field near Franklin Municipal-John Beverly Rose Airport.
State police dispatchers were alerted to the crash around 12:30 p.m.
Captain Timothy Whitt with Franklin Police tells 10 On Your Side a small private plane took off from the airport, experienced engine troubles and immediately tried to turn around.
Virgnia State Police say the plane polled and crashed into the trees as it was landing. They say the aircraft was roughly 100 yards in the woods, leaking fuel.
Whitt says two people were on board the plane when it crashed.
The pilot, 75-year-old Linda Mathias, of Norfolk, and the passenger, 69-year-old Paul L. Ruehrmund, of Williamsburg, were both taken to Southampton Memorial Hospital with minor injuries.
Courtesy of wavy.com
Plane crash injures 1 at Isle of Wight airport, Virginia, USA
Virginia State Police say one person was injured when a small private plane crashed while taking off at an Isle of Wight airport.
The Daily Press reports the plane ran off the end of the runway at the Franklin Municipal-John Beverly Rose Airport just before takeoff.
State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says a pilot and passenger were aboard and one had minor injuries.
Courtesy of washingtonpost.com
MAGNITUDE 5.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=551952
Subject To Change
Depth: 40 km
Distances: 247 km SE of Honiara, Solomon Islands / pop: 56,300 / local time: 04:26:13.6 2016-12-12
62 km SW of Kirakira, Solomon Islands / pop: 1,200 / local time: 04:26:13.6 2016-12-12
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