Free Republic

ST. PETERSBURG - A 94-year-old motorist struck and killed a pedestrian Wednesday evening, then drove about 3 miles with the body lodged in the windshield until he was stopped at a Sunshine Skyway tollbooth. The driver told officers he thought the body had fallen from the sky, said St. Petersburg police Officer Mike Jockers. "He had no idea he had been involved in an accident," Jockers said. "He doesn't totally understand what happened." The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. when the 52-year-old pedestrian attempted to cross 34th Street S from east to west near 46th Avenue S, witnesses told police....

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 18, 2005) -- One country boy from Hilmar, Calif., ensures service members receive medical attention here, while on his third deployment since joining the Corps three years ago. Cpl. Daniel W. Phipps, ambulance driver, Battalion Aid Station, Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Force Service Support Group (FWD), works with Navy corpsmen to aid service members here. “I work with the CLB-8 BAS...[we] support all medical coverage on and off base for the unit,” he said. Like many Marines deployed here, the 21-year-old has a huge responsibility resting on his shoulders at a very young age. “I...

(CBS/AP) Charges are being filed against the driver of a bus that caught fire near Dallas while carrying people fleeing Hurricane Rita. The driver is being charged with criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers.

Court upholds ruling on license photo By JAY STAPLETON Staff Writer Last update: September 07, 2005 DAYTONA BEACH -- A local appeals court says the constitutional rights of a Muslim woman who wanted to wear a veil in her driver's license photo were not violated and she must follow the state law requiring full face photos. The opinion reached Friday by the 5th District Court of Appeal affirmed a 2003 order from a trial court in Orlando, which shot down the civil lawsuit filed by Sultaana Freeman of Winter Park, denying her the right to have her license picture taken...

Officials in the southeastern Minnesota town of Goodview are relieved nobody was hurt in their annual parade. An 86-year-old woman drove into the parade Sunday, frightening spectators and participants. Police Chief LaVern Hauschildt says it's a miracle no one was injured. Police say the woman turned her red Cadillac directly into the oncoming parade. She nearly struck several children and adults, and almost mowed down a girl's gymnastics team, as she reached speeds of 35 to 50 miles an hour. An officer tracked her down at home. The chief says the driver was upset police hadn't kept people off the...

SAN DIEGO – Police were searching downtown near Interstate 5 on Monday morning for a woman who ran away after her car hurtled off southbound Interstate 5 and crashed into a gas station on First Avenue. According to reports called in to the California Highway Patrol, the vehicle was seen traveling at speeds up to 100 miles per hour before leaving the freeway shortly before 7:30 a.m. and crashing into the station just north of state Route 163. A woman was seen running from the car and San Diego police officers were searching a nearby hotel for her. Police said...

OLYMPIA – Three years after getting drunk, blowing through a stop sign and triggering a wreck that left her passenger critically injured, a former Idaho resident has filed a $1.5 million claim against Washington's Pend Oreille County for not detaining her before she caused the crash. In her claim, Ashlen Lee says that on June 12, 2002, a county sheriff's deputy stopped her truck around 3:30 a.m. and could see that she had been drinking. But after quizzing her, the deputy let the 17-year-old drive away. The officer said he'd give them a warning," said Lee's attorney, W. Russell Van...

A FORMER school bus driver in the United States has been sentenced to five years in prison for accepting a $US10 ($A13) bribe to ignore two students as they sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. Lacey Jane Bolen, 26, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to being an accessory after the fact to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, Assistant Prosecutor Kristi Harrington said. Bolen's lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The bus was equipped with an emergency button to alert authorities to problems, but Bolen never triggered the device during the assault in South Carolina in January. "At...

A Saudi woman has defied the country's ban on female drivers to save her husband after he collapsed at the wheel, a Saudi newspaper has reported. The couple were driving from the city of Dammam to Riyadh when the man suffered breathing problems and passed out, the al-Watan newspaper said. His wife grabbed the wheel and drove 15km (10 miles) to a petrol station where he was treated and recovered. The man had reportedly taught his wife to drive during trips to the desert. The kingdom imposes severe restrictions on women, including barring them from voting or going out in...

SAN DIEGO – A prescreened driver who passed a security background check was arrested with drugs in her car as she attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Customs officials said Friday. A suspicious Customs official stopped 21-year-old Jhuliana Aramis Cohen of Tijuana, Mexico in one of the SENTRI lanes at San Diego's San Ysidro crossing. Cohen was jailed Wednesday after a search turned up 202 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of her car. About 80,000 pay up to $129 each to enroll in SENTRI, or Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection. Adele Fasano, field operations director for...

Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized. Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick's is lighter on the race track. "The lighter the car, the faster it goes," Gordon said. "Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the...

I have a golf question for you guys. I got a new driver, TaylorMade 420 Burner.. The Stock Shaft is about garbage.. I'm looking for something cheap ($20-$40) that I can put on it to give me a little more distance.. Swing Speed is around 95 mph.

A Romanian traffic cop has been demoted after he fined a driver for “having a face like a moron and being a big monkey”. Marius Vlasceanu pulled over Gheorghe Tosa as he drove through Craiova in Romania, local daily Jurnalul National reported. But Tosa failed to see the funny side as Vlasceanu fined him £22 and handed him a ticket explaining the reason for the fine was “having a face like a moron and being a big monkey”. ananova

ROSARITO, Mexico (AP) - Police have identified the driver who hit two Americans while drag racing on a beach here last month, but he has avoided arrest by filing a court injunction, investigators said Thursday. Amy Ruth Kent, 24, of Santa Barbara, California, died instantly when she was hit by the car March 20. Her companion, Joseph Andre Escalante, was seriously injured and taken to a hospital in California. Witnesses told police that the two were resting on the sand in front of a restaurant when they were hit by a man driving a Honda. The driver fled the scene....

A 20-year-old Clarksville man might face charges in connection with a woman's death after his 1992 Honda Accord crashed into the car she was in Saturday night, police said. The impact split the 1999 Honda Civic in two and killed Guadalupe Aguilar, 23, of Tynewood Drive. Her fiance, Andrew Gold, 25, was driving, said Officer Jimmy Dill, of Clarksville Police Department's Fatal Accident Crash Team. Gold was turning left onto Ringgold Road about 9:15 p.m. Saturday, when the Accord, driven by Fernando Ruiz Hernandez of 2871 Fort Campbell Blvd., hit his car, Dill said. The officers said Hernandez ran a...

SAN FRANCISCO California authorities say O-J Simpson's older brother was the driver of an airport shuttle bus that crashed on a freeway, killing a passenger. According to the California Highway Patrol, Melvin Simpson may have fallen asleep at the wheel before the bus struck a guard rail Friday and veered into a concrete support column. Officials say Simpson was near the end of his eight-hour shift and suffering flulike symptoms when the 21-seat van crashed. Six other passengers were injured. Simpson, who also suffered minor injuries, provided a blood sample to investigators, but they don't suspect he was under the...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has introduced the REAL ID act on the floor of the House. The REAL ID act contains four main provisions: -- An applicant for a driver’s license must prove lawful presence in the United States. States may still issue the license if such proof is not produced but must stamp it in such a way as to show permission to legally be in the United States was not presented. Such a stamped license cannot be used for any federal purpose such as boarding a commercial flight. -- Asylum laws are tightened so that...

A 37-year-old Chicago city worker and AIDS activist was denied bond today on charges he killed a taxi driver by repeatedly driving the man's cab over him after a quarrel. (Michael) Jackson is a policy and communications specialist for the Chicago Department of Public Health. City officials have said that given the criminal charges pending against Jackson, they were moving to fire him.

Making a list of the worst cars of all time, which we compiled last year, is easier than making a list of the worst cars currently on the market because, frankly, all cars are built pretty well these days. However, even now in the early days of the 2005 model year, several vehicles stand out for subpar performance in several important categories--in some cases, matters of life and death such as safety. What follows is a roundup of the ten worst cars on the market, based on three criteria: the worst crash test scores, the lowest projected reliability and the...

When young adults use cell phones while driving, they're as bad as a 70-year-old on the verge of a nap and signaling for that eventual left turn. And yes, you can blame the chatty 20-somethings for the stop-and-go traffic on the way to work. A new study confirms that the reaction time of cellphone users slows dramatically, increasing the risk of accidents and tying up traffic in general.....