The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 29, 2000, Page 6, Image 6
Nation & World
Crash
from page 4
to Georgia.
Kate Pannell, personnel director
for Murray County schools, said she knew
of no previous accidents on the oriver’s
record. She said the woman had been dri
ving for the district for about three years.
Residents said the bus driver seemed
conscientious.
“Every time that lady has come
through there, that bus has stopped at that
road, ” Edward V&tson said Searching for
explanations, he said: “It is hard to see
a train coming, and if you have children
on the bus, even if the train had blowed
its hom, she may not have even heard
it.”
Several residents faulted the lack of
a warning signal. “That’s where the blame
lies,” Whtson said
Each day, about 150 cars pass over
that crossing, and 13 trains pass the in
tersection at about 60 mph, said Lu
anne Grandinetti, spokeswoman for the
Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Of the 3,424 railroad crossings in the
state, 61 percent are “passive,” meaning
there’s a warning sign, but no lights or
gate. Electronic warning systems are on
ly required at crossings where more than
100 cars cross each day, there’s regular
school bus and train traffic and a fatal ac
cident has happened.
The crossing now appears to meet all
those requirements, Grandinetti said. She
said some sort of warning system would
be installed.
It would cost $10 billion to erect
warning lights and gates at the 85,000
highway-rail crossings in the United States
that don’t have them, said Gerri Hall,
president of Operation Lifesaver Inc., a
nonprofit agency in Alexandria, Va., that
promotes traffic safety.
“We don’t have that kind of money
in the federal coffers or anyone’s pock
et waiting to be spent,” she said, adding
that half of all vehicle-train accidents oc
• cur at crossings that have warning lights
and guard arms.
Accidents between trains and high
way vehicles have dropped nearly 90 per
cent since 1972, according to the Fed
eral Railroad Administration.
Murray County, with about 31,000
people, is a blue-collar manufacturing
area dependent on carpet mills in near
by Dalton.
Northwest Elementary maintained
its regular class schedule Tuesday. Three
counselors were at the school.
Veronica Ownby, who lives about a
quarter-mile from the accident scene,
said her grandson, 7-year-old Zachary
Matthews, rides the bus in the afternoons,
but she drives him to school in the morn
ings.
“He’s upset over all his little bud
dies,” she said.
'He's upset over all his
little buddies.’
Veronica Ownby
grandmother of Northwest
Elementary student
Flag
from page 4
stars historians say was most frequently
carried into battle, at a monument to Con
federate women. A flag black Union sol
diers in the First South Carolina Volun
teer Infantry Regiment carried would go
elsewhere on the grounds.
Sen. Glenn McConnell, a Charleston
Republican who sells Confederate mem
orabilia at his Charleston gallery, said the
plan “is entombment” for the flag that
he spends some weekends fighting under
as a Civil War re-enactor.
“That symbolically would bury the
flag,” he said. “Then somebody tells me
that they want another glass case for this
and another glass case for that. You
start putting up glass cases all over [this]
yard and it’s going to look like Crystal
City on Krypton,” McConnell said.
“A political deal is not worth risking
a priceless artifact,” he said.
From politics and business to enter
tainment and sports, the flag continues
to create controversy in South Carolina.
Former NASCAR great Cale Yarbor
ough is a Confederate flag supporter.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley thought
he had enlisted Yarborough to participate
in a march from Charleston to Colum
bia to protest the flag, but Yarborough
said he was misled.
“I was told ‘if’ the Legislature de
cides to take down the flag, the march
was to make sure it was put in an ap
propriate place of honor, not shoved in
some closet,” he said. “I’m a supporter
of the Confederate battle flag. I’ll march
to keep it up.”
However, Riley’s march is not with
out its big names, including USC coach
es Eddie Fogler and Lou Holtz, Hootie
and the Blowfish lead singer Darius Ruck
er, Bank of America Chairman Hugh Mc
Coll and financier Darla Moore.
The march will be held Sunday
through Thursday and is being funded by
a private organization called South Car
olina United.
Euan
from page 4
so confident they will win, then they can
wait a few weeks. It would be a mistake,
provoking this family and the commu
nity.” ,s
Government officials have said they
do not want to traumatize the boy or cre
ate a conflict with the family.
“From the beginning we have been
mindful of the fact that at the center of
this case is a 6-year-old boy who has been
through a terrible ordeal,” Kraushaar
said “Wfe are concerned for him and will
continue to try to resolve this matter in
a way that avoids additional trauma to
him.”
About 75 demonstrators gathered
outside the Gonzalez home Tuesday in
response to a call by the anti-Castro
Democracy Movement, which uiged
them to form a human chain around the
home if the government tries to remove
Elian.
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