Free Republic

A Cherokee Middle School staff member was killed Monday morning after being hit by an SUV outside of the school. According to the Dane County Coroner's office, Becky Sue Buchmann, 48, of Oregon, was hit by the vehicle at 7:13 a.m. and died from the injuries. Buchmann, an educational assisant in the library, was pronounced dead at the hospital. The driver of the SUV, whose name has not been released, was dropping off a child at the school when the accident occurred on Cherokee Drive. No arrests or citations have been made, but the investigation is ongoing, police said. As...

A professional boxer was killed in the Bronx early yesterday when a barroom argument spilled outside and one of the men involved drove his sport utility vehicle into a group of people on the sidewalk, the police and witnesses said. The fight began inside the Moonlight Restaurant and Bar on Belmont Avenue in Belmont, apparently brought on by arguments over which Albanian clan was superior, witnesses said.

DIXON -- A motorist stopped for speeding and drunken driving on Interstate 80 early today in Dixon bolted from a California Highway Patrol officer, jumped the median and was struck and killed by a sport-utility vehicle, authorities said. Shaun Jones, 26, of Sacramento died shortly after 1 a.m. when he was hit by a woman driving a Ford Expedition on westbound I-80 near Dixon Avenue in Solano County, the CHP said. The incident began when two CHP officers in a patrol car clocked Jones traveling 96 mph in a Cadillac Deville on eastbound I-80 east of Dixon Avenue, authorities said....

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Sports utility vehicles may feel safer for their drivers but they are more deadly than other cars for pedestrians, Irish scientists said on Friday. Research has shown that the chance of killing or seriously injuring a pedestrian is two to four times higher for someone driving an SUV, or 4X4 vehicle, than a car. "There is clearly a higher risk for pedestrians when they are struck by a light truck or SUV compared to a passenger car," Dr. Ciaran Simms, an expert in mechanical engineering at Trinity College in Dublin, told Reuters. Elderly pedestrians and children...

A 25-year-old man died yesterday after he tumbled off his skateboard while his brother towed him in an SUV down Jamacha Road, San Diego police said. A back tire of the Ford Explorer ran over Cecilio Miguel Soltero of Spring Valley. He was not wearing a helmet, police said. A witness said she saw the driver jump out of the Explorer and scream, "It's my fault! It's my fault!" Investigators arrested the brother, Patrick Soltero, 21, on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter. Police said the two were going west on Jamacha Road, just west of Car Street in the Jamacha-Lomita neighborhood,...

CHULA VISTA – A 7-year-old boy suffered serious head injuries today in a South Bay traffic collision that sent six others to the hospital, authorities said. The crash happened just before 3 p.m., on East H Street and Tierra Del Rey in Chula Vista, said police Lt. Dan Linney. Witnesses told police a Suzuki SUV headed west on East H. Street ran a red light and struck a Ford Explorer making a left turn onto eastbound H, Linney said. A vehicle on Tierra Del Rey was struck when the two SUVs spun out, the lieutenant said. The boy was airlifted...