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49 dead in Kentucky airplane accident

Comair commuter jet crashes in Lexington, KY after taking off from the wrong runway; pilot error may be to blame in accident that killed all but co-pilot - 8/28/06

Wis. Man Dies in Wood Chipper

(AP) - PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis.-

The son of a 91-year-old woman who died in her wheelchair awaiting rescue from a shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sued the state and the city Thursday.Herbert Freeman Jr. filed a lawsuit in state Civil District Court in New Orleans accusing numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of "gross negligence and willful misconduct" in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman. He plans to file a second lawsuit in federal court against the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The elderly woman died sitting in her wheelchair outside the city's convention center, which was overwhelmed with desperate evacuees. Her body, pushed to one side and covered with a poncho, became a widely noted icon of the botched hurricane response.Freeman's lawyer, John Paul Massicot, said the mother and son were instructed to go the fetid convention center - even though there was no aid available and no way out. "Let's not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn't get her. She didn't survive the rescue," Massicot said.The woman and her son got caught as the water began to rise in their flooded neighborhood. The day after the storm made landfall breaking New Orleans' weak levees, the son was able to secure a boat and place his mother inside, still sitting in her wheelchair. New Orleans Police instructed them to seek shelter at the convention center, where they were told buses were coming, the lawsuit states.Once they reached the shelter, they found teeming crowds and no food, water or buses. As his mother began to slip away in the suffocating heat, Freeman pleaded for medical help, but there was none. She died 24 hours after reaching the convention center, slumped in her wheelchair.For four days, Freeman watched over her body before he was ordered to leave her at gunpoint, after buses finally arrived, said Massicot. He recalls kneeling by the wheelchair and praying, then leaving a note with his address and phone number inside one of her pocket.It would take him seven weeks to track down her body which was taken to a morgue in St. Gabriel, La. More than two months would pass before he could lay her to rest.The lawsuit charges that even though a mandatory evacuation was called, it was announced only 20 hours before the storm made landfall, not enough time to evacuate a chronically ill woman.State officials said they were not prepared to comment on the lawsuit. City officials did not return calls or an e-mail seeking comment.2006-08-17T16:59:34Z

Subway fire in New York forces thousands to evacuate 2 trains, minor injuries reported(AP) -

NEW YORK-A fire broke out on elevated subway tracks during evening rush hour, forcing thousands of people to evacuate, filling a platform with smoke and slightly injuring dozens of people.Between 3,000 and 4,000 people were evacuated Wednesday from two trains in Brooklyn, the fire department said. Fifteen people, including three firefighters, suffered minor injuries including smoke inhalation. During the evacuation, power to the tracks was shut off so riders could walk safely from the trains to the subway platform, the fire department said.Most of the injured were taken to a hospital after the smoke was reported around 6 p.m. (2200 GMT) at the DeKalb Avenue stop on the B line, which runs between Brooklyn and the Bronx and passes through Manhattan.New York City Transit said it believed there was a fire just beyond the platform on a wooden tie. It did not cite a cause.Service was affected on parts of five subway lines, complicating the commute for countless New Yorkers.Passenger Danilo Ignacio said that the heat in his subway car, with the air conditioning off, was almost unbearable and that he had to calm an asthmatic woman who was having trouble breathing."It was almost like being in a sardine can, but it's being cooked while you're on it," Ignacio said.Train traffic on the Manhattan Bridge was restored by about 9:30 p.m. (0130 GMT), with some delays, New York City Transit said. Service during the Thursday morning rush hour was not expected to be affected.Several subway riders complained that it took more than an hour before firefighters arrived, pulling some of them out through windows.2006-08-17T03:52:17Z

A jury has awarded $1 million to a man who claimed a hospital let his mother's body decompose so badly that he couldn't hold an open casket wake and funeral.Veronica Gilson was 67 when she died during an operation on March 28, 2002. In his lawsuit, William Gilson, 27, of New York City, said Westchester Square Hospital left his mother's body in a heated hallway for 38 hours because its morgue was overcrowded. The suit states the body had decomposed to the point that a funeral home was unable to embalm it.The jury verdict was announced Wednesday. The hospital says it may appeal.2006-08-18T00:43:57Z