A 5-year-old boy knocked over a sculpture at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. A few days later, Overland Park's insurance company hit the boy's parents with a $132,000 bill. From ABC News:
City officials say the piece was not “permanently attached” but it was secured to the pedestal with clips and that it was “a not an interactive piece.”
“We’ve had other pieces there [and] we’ve not had problems,” said city spokesman Sean Reilly. “We’ve not had this situation… we’ve not had kids climb on our pieces.”
But (the child's mom Sarah) Goodman argued the sculpture should have been better secured. She also disputes the city’s claim that her child wasn’t being supervised. Goodman said she and her husband were out of frame of the surveillance camera, saying their goodbyes during a wedding reception that they were leaving, when the incident occurred.
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A huge crane at a construction site in St. Petersburg, Florida came crashing down towards workers today. You can see them running for their lives as the crane smashes into the ground, just missing a man. Luckily no one was hurt.
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Spotting a semi truck with its container raised, a car driver noted its impending doom and began filming. And following it rather too closely. Read the rest
There are countless videos of accidents and near-misses on YouTube, but this one's fractional difference between life and death makes it particularly alarming. (The very high-quality footage helps.)
Remarks from the rider:
Gloves, jacket, helmet. I wasnt wearing my riding jeans and shoes though because I was just going up the road. Just had on regular jeans and boots.
Everyone was ok, no one needed an ambulance thankfully. That guy was just an idiot, wasnt paying attention. One of the first things he asked was "was the light green or red?"... probably texting but he had two passengers in the car as well, so not sure how they were all completely oblivious.
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Spewing like massive tentacular light sabers, steel mill cobbles are unpredictable workplace mishaps that represent "extreme manufacturing danger."
The temperature of molten steel is in excess of 1300°C (2500°F) and it goes without saying that those in the vicinity of strips of molten metal need to be extremely careful. This steel is heated to such temperatures to make it more manageable and allow strips to be gradually reduced in diameter to the required size ... There are images aplenty of steel cobbles because while they are extremely dangerous they happen on a daily basis in many steel plants. Indeed when producing steel via this process you will regularly hear people quote the cobble rate which is in effect the rate of waste.
Some of these videos are weirdly beautiful; all of these are absolutely terrifying.
Here, a stern British man explains what's happening:
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An Amtrak train full of passengers derailed this morning at 7:40am, leaving cars dangling over an overpass near Seattle, WA. There have been multiple deaths and injuries.
Via CNN:
"I was traveling to work this morning along I-5 and we came to a sudden stop," Greg Mukai told CNN. "We all tried to stop quickly to avoid running into each other to be honest. Once we all came to a stop I was able to look up and see, unfortunately, this scary thing of ... a train hanging off of the overpass. Lots of military personnel and people ran to try to help the best they could."
"We came around the corner and it had to have just happened...there were no police there yet. There was one link of the train off to one side and the other on the other side of the freeway. There were crushed cars underneath. There was an insane amount of fire trucks and ambulances heading towards us."
Amtrak said it is aware of the incident involving the 501 train which travels from Seattle to Portland, Oregon.
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A man in Connecticut was flying a single-engine Cessna 172 to get breakfast when he crashed into a tree, his plane then cartwheeling before landing on the ground of a parking lot. The 80-year-old pilot, Manfred Forst, was rushed to the hospital but miraculously had only minor injuries.
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The Russian army clearly needs to teach its tank drivers not to text and drive.
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Let's hope nobody was badly hurt when this flagpole spectacularly ignited when it came into contact with a powerline overhead. The incident was recorded by a drone. Read the rest
The people shooting this video try to warn a truck driver in Texas that the truck's bucket is raised, but the driver is oblivious. And then the truck crashes into a highway sign and takes it out, along with the entire trestle. Never seen anything like this before!
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A fellow in Reading, England, was lucky to survive when a runaway bus plowed into him, sending him flying through the air and landing only inches from where the vehicle's tires barreled past. Fortunately there was a pub only feet away, allowing him to acquire a healing potion within seconds of the incident.
According to the BBC, Mr Smith suffered only minor injuries and said he feels "lucky to be alive".
Daniel Fraifeld, 50, who co-owns the Purple Turtle bar, said: "I think he [Simon] pretty much got up, brushed himself down and then an ambulance came and took him to be checked.
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It's not often that police will post video directly from the scene of a crime or emergency, but this footage from Nicholasville, Kentucky's Officer Baker offers a harrowing and instructive warning about the dangers of poorly-secured shipping containers in transit. It's hard going: twelve casualties, all crushed beyond human hope. Read the rest
The Press Democrat posted this video, shot by Tom Bond, of a crash on Highway 101 near Cloverdale, California: a car sheared clean in two lengthwise, the stunned driver still seated, unhurt, inches from the tear. The other driver was ejected but only suffered moderate injuries.
According to the CHP, Apol Lansang, 26, of Sonoma, was driving her Malibu south on Highway 101, near Geysers Road when she was struck by the northbound Sequoia being driven by Kevin Fenty, 27, of Huntington Beach, that drifted across the highway into Lansang’s lane.
The impact sliced Lansang’s car down the middle, sending the car’s entire passenger side onto the embankment. Fenty was ejected by the impact. Both drivers were taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital — Lansang with minor injuries and Fenty with moderate injuries, according to the CHP.
“The scene was, it was pretty intense,” said Sgt. Jason Bahlman, who has been with the CHP for 16 years. “It was definitely one of the most severely damaged cars I’ve ever seen.”
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In this footage from Europe, the autopilot on a Tesla warns driver Frank van Hoesel of an accident about to happen. He doesn't even realize why his car is braking suddenly until he sees the crash occur—forty yards away. Read the rest
A Comacast repairman in Indianapolis has "a job to do" on a slushy, slippery steet. If cars slide off the road and collide because of it, so be it.
UPDATE 12:38PM PT: Here's a statement from Ed Marchetti, SVP of Technical Operations, Comcast Cable.
When I watched this video I was very concerned by what I saw. Our employees should always protect people and treat them with respect no matter what the situation. Safety matters most - especially in dangerous weather conditions like this.
We are actively investigating what happened when our technicians were on site to restore services during an outage and we will reach out to those who were impacted by this incident.
Within the next 24-48 hours, my team leaders will meet with our technicians across our company to use this as an example of how important it is to make everyone’s safety a priority in everything we do.
And just as important, there’s no place for disrespect - treating people the right way is the only way to work.
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Emergency response times in Zalgo county are superlative! [via] Read the rest
"How can you tell?" Read the rest
