transportation news: April 2007 Archives

Underinflated tires contribute to car crashes that result in 660 deaths and 33,000 injuries annually. To bring attention to the deadly matter, Pep Boys is testing tires for motorists, according to the Auto Channel.

Get the scoop HERE.

The buzz word these days in transportation is: ethanol, ethanol, ethanol. Deemed a significant tool to reduce global warming, ethanol is the savior these days. And now companies are pushing to create ethanol empires throughout the west, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Read more HERE.

What are your thoughts? Share them with our blog.

Gas costing more than $3 a gallon is hardly news for California. But what's interesting to note is that only five states in the country, including California, are seeing gas prices spike over $3. And consumers are paying these steep prices with little complaints, leaving analysts to believe the sticker shock for many is long gone.

Get the story HERE.

What are your thoughts on gas prices? Are you accepting these costs as the new norm? Tell our blog.

Two people escaped with minor injuries Thursday from a Cessna aircraft after it cartwheeled off the runway and into a field at Whiteman Airport, officials said.

After coming down hard during its landing at 10 a.m., the plane bounced in the air. The pilot, Dan Grahek of Palmdale, then gave the plane full throttle to make it airborne, but it stalled. A wing then hit the ground and propelled the plane off the runway, said Gary Boz, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

Grahek and the passenger Charles Currey of Monrovia were the only two on board. Boz did not know the extent of their injuries.

The plane was damaged beyond repair.

Pacoima's Whiteman Airport is one of five airports managed by the county Department of Public Works.

Gas prices continued rising by almost a penny a day in most Southern California cities over the past week, coming within 15 cents of the all-time record prices set last May, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's Weekend Gas Watch.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.260, which is 5.5 cents higher than last week, 38 cents higher than last month, and 42 cents higher than last year.

In San Diego, the price is $3.291, which is 6.6 cents above last week's price, 38 cents above last month, and 47 cents above last year. In the Inland Empire, the average price is $3.287, 6.3 cents above last week, 40 cents higher than last month, and 45 cents higher than last year.

"California still has by far the highest gas prices in the country, but other states' prices rose even more rapidly than California over the last week, and Nevada has just become the second state with a gas price average over $3 a gallon," said Auto Club spokesperson Carol Thorp. "Crude oil prices have come down in the last week, but recent international incidents in the Middle East have added another layer of volatility to the market."

Source: The Autochannel

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The world's largest natural gas producers are expected to announce the formation of a cartel next week and no one is certain what the new organization will try to achieve, according to Forbes.

Curious? Read more HERE.

Share your thoughts with us about the new cartel and write to this blog.

REIMS (AFP) - France's TGV fast train set a new world speed record on rails Tuesday, hitting 574.8 kilometres per hour --357.2 mph -- on a specially prepared stretch of track east of Paris, according to official monitors.

The record -- easily beating the 515.3 kph set by a TGV (Traine a Grande Vitesse) in 1990 -- was made by an experimental version equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels.

However the TGV narrowly missed the overall world train speed record of 581 kph --360.8 mph -- reached in 2003 by a Japanese magnetic levitation, or Maglev, train.

Manufacturer Alstom arranged the exploit to test its latest engineering designs in extreme conditions, and also to display the TGV's technological prowess to clients in a growing world market.

Facing stiff competition from German and Japanese rivals, Alstom is angling for future bids from Argentina, China and Italy, as well as from the US state of California.

--Agence France-Presse - Francois Nascimbeni

SAN FRANCISCO — A Honolulu-bound Delta Air Lines Inc. jet was diverted to San Francisco on Tuesday when a female passenger became unruly after smoking in the lavatory, federal officials said.

Delta Flight 511, a nonstop from Cincinnati, was over the Pacific Ocean when the passenger had “a complete meltdown freakout,” said a fellow passenger who called The Associated Press from the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport.

The flight was turned around after the woman hit a pilot who had left the cockpit to quell the disturbance, said Elizabeth Oglesby of Atlanta.

“She appeared to be out of her mind. Upset. Belligerent,” Oglesby said. “He threatened to handcuff her if she didn’t calm down. At that point she hit him in the chest.”

The woman was given oxygen and was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the plane landed.

Officials with the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately release the name of the passenger and it was not clear if she would face criminal charges. It’s a federal crime to smoke on a commercial flight.

Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly said the Boeing 767 landed safely at about 1p.m. and resumed its flight about an hour later.

“I wish I was on the beach right now,” Oglesby said before the flight resumed. “I think Delta did the right thing. You don’t hit a pilot in an airplane.”

--Associated Press

LONG BEACH - Work began today on a $20 million, 25,000-square-foot security command and control center to be built at the Port of Long Beach.

The structure, slated for completion in the fall of 2008, will house officers from the
port’s police force, Long Beach Police Department, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Port of Los Angeles’ police force.

Funding came from the Port of Long Beach and the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security.

“This command and control center marks the beginning of a new era in port security,” Long Beach Harbor Commission President James Hankla said. “The facility will give us the room to house a growing security division, room for the new tools they need, and room for our partners to work with us in an emergency.”

-City News Service