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An elderly woman escaped an almost certain death after a group of strangers bravely dove into ocean waters to save her after her car crashed into the water. The Portland Press Herald reports that 84-year-old Ursula Nixon lost control of her car, driving through two fences and submerging her blue Nissan into Maine's Portland Harbor. "It looked like it was barreling pretty fast," Mike Wells, one of the rescuers, told the paper. "I saw it go over the edge and then water splashed up." Katie Nelson was first in the water, climbing on top of the sinking vehicle and then...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Earlier this week NASA safely landed a robotic rover on Mars about 150 million miles away. But on Thursday here on Earth, a test model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just seconds after liftoff. The spider-like spacecraft called Morpheus was on a test flight at Cape Canaveral when it tilted, crashed to the ground and erupted in flames. It got only a few feet up in the air, NASA said. ... Morpheus is a prototype for a cheap, environmentally friendly planetary lander. Thursday was the first time it had been tested...

A twin-engine aircraft crashed into the Gulf of Mexico after the pilot was unresponsive for nearly three hours as radar tracked the plane flying aimlessly in loops. The FAA lost radio contact with the Cessna 421 before 9 a.m. ET. It was circling at approximately 28,000 feet. Fully loaded, the plane was carrying about 3.5 hours worth of fuel. Only the pilot was thought to be on board. The plane took off from Slidell, La., and was en route to Sarasota, Fla., according to a flight plan. Somewhere between the two points, it began flying in circles. Officials at NORAD...

Bell, Calif. (AP) -- An unlicensed driver is in jail after crashing a van into a Southern California furniture store. Sgt. Albert Rusas says the 27-year-old man has been booked for investigation of drunken driving and felony hit and run. He remained in jail Monday morning. ... The driver, whose name is being withheld, tried to run away.

The 6-ton UARS satellite — the biggest piece of space debris to fall from the sky since Sky Lab in 1979 — fell back to Earth early Saturday morning. Debris is reported to have been found near Calgary, Canada.The wait is over. NASA's bus-sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) has fallen, becoming the largest runaway chunk of space junk to drop back down to Earth since two satellites, including the behemoth Sky Lab, punched the atmosphere in 1979. "We can now confirm that #UARS is down!" reported the official NASA Twitter account. "Debris fell to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT...

WOODSTOCK -- The last few days have been busy for Shenandoah County emergency personnel on Interstate 81. Or, as some people may feel, it's been like old times. Four notable crashes in a 10-mile stretch since Thursday afternoon -- there were two that day, one on Friday and a tractor-trailer overturned Tuesday morning -- may have been the most in such a short period of time since the Virginia Department of Transportation raised the posted speed limit throughout most of the jurisdiction to 70 mph last the fall. Official crash data, though, is not yet available for the past few...

A passenger jet crash-landed Monday on a desolate stretch of road in northwest Russia, killing at least 38 people, the country’s state news agency reported. The plane reportedly took off from Moscow and contained 48 passengers and five crewmembers. It is unclear what brought the plane down about 2 miles from Petrozavodsk airport, its destination, reported Itar-Tass. But the Tupolev-134 plane caught fire and the fuselage was reportedly completely destroyed. Those injured were considered in serious condition. Authorities began an investigation into the crash; early signs point to a mechanical error, Itar-Tass reported, citing a source.

In the UK we call them lorries, not trucks and, of course, we drive on the left, not on the right, but whichever country you live in it must be a terrifying moment when you are on a dual carriageway and suddenly come face to face with a vehicle driving in the wrong direction….

LONDON – A small plane carrying a liver for transplant crashed and burst into flames at England's Birmingham Airport Friday. Two crew members were injured, but rescuers managed to salvage the donor organ and rush it to a nearby hospital West Midlands Police Chief Inspector Matt Markham said the privately owned Cessna made a "hard landing" and caught fire just after 3:30 p.m. (1530GMT, 10:30 a.m. EST). He said visibility in the area, 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of London, was "appalling" because of thick fog. An airport spokesman said the plane, flying from Belfast, clipped an antenna as it...

In a questionnaire put out by the Associated Press last week, Michigan congressmen Fred Upton (R-7th District), Mark Schauer (D-8th District) and Gary Peters (D-9th District) all expressed support for "stronger emission controls and fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks." But some transportation experts say this will lead to higher fatality rates in Michigan and nationally. "There have been many studies showing that these standards will result in more deaths," said Steven Milloy, an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the author of the book Green Hell. "Lighter cars are associated with higher fatalities, period." All three...

All 169 people on board were feared killed when a passenger plane overshot the runway in southern India and crashed early Saturday, an official said.

"Matt Falconer Friends, I went toe to toe with Alan Grayson for five minutes tonight. Alan interupted a Republican meeting at Perkins. I insisted Alan apologize to the republican chairman or leave. He said I was interuppting HIM. Grayson promised to use the Obama forces to defeat me. Bring it on Alan, your 15 minutes of fame are up."

WASHINGTON -- Toyota has hit another pothole. The company has gotten over 100 complaints in the US and Japan about brake problems involving it popular Prius hybrid, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. Two involved crashes resulting in injuries. Japan's transport ministry ordered an investigation early today. The complaints are the latest in a spate of quality troubles for the auto maker as it grapples with massive global recalls due to sticking accellerators. The Prius is not part of that recall of nearly 4.5 million vehicles.

LOWELL, Mass. — Police said a Massachusetts lumber truck crashed into a home after the driver was knocked unconscious by a small chili from Wendy's. Lowell police said Eric Gremm reported that he choked on the chili when the truck hit a bump, causing him to pass out as the flatbed truck veered off the road and slammed into the home. The man, 59, said emergency workers at the scene told him that he had passed out, but he could not remember losing consciousness.

Newsmax Mandelblit: Phony Crashes a Deadly Scam Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:42 PM By: Bruce Mandelblit Sometimes Hollywood meets reality. The season premier of "Burn Notice," a popular spy-themed show on the USA network, features a storyline about the deadly consequences from a fake auto accident scam. Sadly, however, such phony auto crash scams are not just a figment of a screenwriter’s vivid imagination. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to an escalating insurance racket known as the staged traffic accident. Staged traffic accidents, not only have cost the honest consumer hundreds of dollars...

Is anyone else been having problems with Firefox freezing up on them? not shutting down? not responding? I remember when I first started using Firefox, it ran rock solid. I happilynupdated to newer versions when they became availiable. But over the last handful of versions, i've found that it has been freezing up and not reponding, with an increasing frequency. And with each new vwersion, it's mostly bug and security fixes.. but I just loaded up thne newest version today, and in less than a hour, I found myself, one again, having to use the task manager to shut the...

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – An unmanned U.S. reconnaissance drone crashed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul early on Saturday, hitting the offices of one of Iraq's biggest political parties, the U.S. military said. No injuries were reported, and there was no indication the aircraft was shot down, said Major Derrick Cheng, a military spokesman in northern Iraq. Cheng said it was a coincidence that the drone struck the local offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political group, the military said. The U.S. military frequently deploys drones in Iraq as part of measures to counter roadside...

WICOMICO CHURCH, Va. – A 6-year-old Virginia boy who missed his bus tried to drive to school in his family's sedan — and crashed. State police say the boy suffered only minor injuries and authorities drove him to school after he was evaluated at a local hospital. Sgt. Tom Cunningham says the boy arrived shortly after lunch.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A helicopter crashed at a hospital on Thursday, sending thick, black smoke over downtown and forcing the evacuation of patients from the building. It was not clear whether anyone had been injured in the crash, which happened around 11 a.m. A fire dispatcher confirmed the crash happened at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, but could not provide any other details. The police department was setting up a command center, but had no other details. Lynda Ignatoski, who was standing outside the Towers Medical building on the Spectrum Health campus, told The Grand Rapids Press she saw the...

Red-light Cameras Increase Crashes, Florida Researchers FindRather than improving motorist safety, red-light cameras significantly increase crashes researchers at the University of South Florida College of Public Health conclude. (Credit: iStockphoto/Sue Smith) ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2008) — Rather than improving motorist safety, red-light cameras significantly increase crashes and are a ticket to higher auto insurance premiums, researchers at the University of South Florida College of Public Health conclude. The effective remedy to red-light running uses engineering solutions to improve intersection safety, which is particularly important to Florida’s elderly drivers, the researchers recommend. “The rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don’t work,”...