Archive for the ‘Saturday’ tag
Police focus on SUV in fatal N. Calif. train crash
Officials test the signals and lights at an intersection where an SUV and Light Rail train collided in Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. Authorities say a light-rail train has collided with a sport utility vehicle in Sacramento, killing a man, a woman and a baby and injuring seven other people. (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)
Officials test the signals and lights at an intersection where an SUV and Light Rail train collided in Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. Authorities say a light-rail train has collided with a sport utility vehicle in Sacramento, killing a man, a woman and a baby and injuring seven other people. (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)
An SUV lies upside down on the tracks after being struck by a light-rail train in Sacremento, Calif., Saturday Jan. 28, 2012. The driver of an SUV drove around a crossing arm and ignored flashing warning lights before the vehicle was struck by the light-rail train Saturday, killing an infant and two adults, authorities said. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Villegas, Sacremento Bee)
Sacramento Fire and Police wait near the light rail crossing on 26th Ave near Franklin and 24th Street where a three people died in a crash between a light-rail train and a sport utility vehicle, Saturday Jan. 28, 2012 authorities. The driver of an SUV drove around a crossing arm and ignored flashing warning lights before the vehicle was struck by a light-rail train in Sacramento on Saturday, killing an infant and two adults, authorities said. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Villegas, Sacramento Bee)
Officials test the signals and lights at an intersection where an SUV and Light Rail train collided in Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. Authorities say a light-rail train has collided with a sport utility vehicle in Sacramento, killing a man, a woman and a baby and injuring seven other people. (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)
An SUV lies upside down on the tracks after being struck by a light-rail train in Sacremento, Calif., Saturday Jan. 28, 2012. The driver of an SUV drove around a crossing arm and ignored flashing warning lights before the vehicle was struck by the light-rail train Saturday, killing an infant and two adults, authorities said. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Villegas, Sacremento Bee)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ? Investigators on Sunday were trying to determine what motivated the driver of a sport utility vehicle to ignore a downed crossing arm and flashing lights and pull the vehicle into the path of an oncoming commuter train in Sacramento.
Three died after the Saturday afternoon collision south of downtown, including a 21-month-old boy.
One of the four people inside the Nissan Pathfinder remained in the hospital Sunday at the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where she was being treated for serious injuries.
Authorities also were trying to sort out the relationships of those involved and were not releasing their identifications.
In addition to the toddler, the dead included a 25-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man, who was ejected from the Pathfinder when it was struck by the southbound light rail train traveling at 55 mph shortly after 4 p.m. The impact pushed the SUV about 30 yards down the track and flipped it.
Officer Laura Peck, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Police Department, said the woman taken to the hospital was the man’s wife.
Investigators and officials with the Sacramento Regional Transit District said video from cameras mounted on the intersection showed the SUV drive around the crossing arms just before impact. That video and other pictures captured by a camera mounted on the train are part of the investigation and were not being released publicly, Peck said.
Witness accounts appear to support the video evidence that the crossing arms were down and warning lights were flashing when the SUV tried to get across the tracks.
Davis resident Ravin Pratab, 42, was in a car that was waiting to cross the tracks when he said he heard a loud bang and then “saw a light-rail train heading south with a big truck smashed on it.”
Authorities said six of the roughly 50 passengers on the light rail train were taken to local hospitals but had only minor injuries.
On Sunday, the tracks were cleared and the intersection was open, with no sign of the previous day’s collision. A white teddy bear was placed at the base of the pole holding the crossing arm, on the same side of the tracks where the SUV had been before it attempted to cross.
Regional transit officials said trains were operating on their regular schedule after a section of track was repaired Saturday night.
One question investigators are trying to answer is the length of time the crossing arms were down. The light rail train passed through the intersection after two Union Pacific freight trains, going in opposite directions and using different tracks, had passed by.
Neither Peck nor a spokeswoman for the transit district said they knew the length of the interval between the time the freight trains cleared the intersection and the commuter line came through. The light rail system has its own dedicated tracks.
Drivers in Sacramento often can wait up to 10 minutes for a freight train to pass, then might have to wait several minutes more because of an approaching light rail train. The extended wait times can be a source of irritation ? and missed appointments ? in California’s capital.
Alane Masui, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Regional Transit District, said Sunday that determining the length of time the crossing arms were down and the interval between the trains was part of the ongoing investigation.
Sacramento’s light rail system, started in 1987, carries an average of 50,000 passengers a day. On weekdays, it’s packed with those commuting between the suburbs and state government jobs downtown.
Masui could not immediately say whether Saturday’s collision was the deadliest in the system’s history or how many collisions between light rail trains and vehicles had occurred in the past.
Associated Press
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Video: Jon Jones using kicks for different purpose in Fox ad
Just after the NFC championship game went to the half yesterday, Fox used their rather large, NFL playoff platform to get viewers excited for Saturday’s UFC on Fox fights. Instead of showing another ad with fight highlights with a popular, adrenaline-pumping song playing, it showed UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones using his kicks for a slightly different purpose.
The ad didn’t fit what MMA fans are used to, and that’s the point. This ad wasn’t for people who already had planned to tune into Saturday’s bouts. The ad was to show the general public that fighters are men with families and a sense of humor. (Jones later tweeted that the young girl in the ad is not his daughter.)
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Sentencing phase in Jeffs trial ends for weekend (AP)
SAN ANGELO, Texas ? Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs won’t find out his punishment this weekend after being convicted of sexually assaulting two underage girls at a Texas ranch.
State District Judge Barbara Walther on Saturday adjourned court after tearful testimony from a woman who claims Jeffs also abused her. The sentencing phase of Jeffs’ trial resumes Monday.
Jurors could sentence the 55-year-old Jeffs to life in prison. Jeffs is the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Jeffs wasn’t in court for Saturday’s testimony. He walked out of court in protest Friday and has continued boycotting the proceedings, choosing instead to remain in another room of the courthouse.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
A polygamist sect leader convicted of sexually assaulting two underage girls ruled his followers with a heavy hand, banning parades, dancing, Sports Illustrated magazine and even the color red, a sect member testified Saturday at his sentencing.
Warren Jeffs, 55, is the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. More than 10,000 followers consider him God’s spokesman on Earth.
A jury convicted him Thursday of sexually assaulting two underage girls he had taken as brides and could sentence him to up to life in prison.
Prosecutors have been trying to show in the sentencing phase of the trial that Jeffs ruled the FLDS with a far heavier and crueler hand than his father, who Jeffs succeeded in 2002. Ezra Draper, who was raised in the FLDS, returned to the witness stand and testified that while Rulon Jeffs allowed fun activities such as parades and dances, his son put a stop to them after rising to power.
Also Saturday, a nephew of Jeffs told the jury that his uncle sexually abused him as a young boy.
Brent Jeffs testified that his uncle sodomized him when he was 5 years old. Warren Jeffs was never charged with sexually assaulting his nephew, but Brent Jeffs says he and his uncle reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed in 2003. The settlement involved some land.
Draper recounted during his testimony how Jeffs admonished him when he was 14 for liking a girl. Draper said Jeffs tapped his crotch with a yardstick and said it was better for him to lose one part of his body than risk all of it suffering in eternal damnation.
“I felt that this man was telling me to cut off my penis in order to stay in school,” Draper said.
He testified that Jeffs also threw out copies of Sports Illustrated and Car and Driver found in the boys’ bedrooms. Books that featured talking animals were banned because Jeffs considered it teaching lies. Even the color red became prohibited, Draper said.
The charges against Jeffs stemmed from a 2008 police raid on a remote FLDS compound in West Texas. The call that led to the raid turned out to be a hoax, but while on the property, officers saw underage girls who were clearly pregnant.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Jeffs fathered a child with one victim when she was 15. They played an audiotape of what they said was him sexually assaulting the other victim when she was 12.
Jeffs represented himself during the trial, but he walked out of his sentencing in protest Friday. He has been held in another room in the courthouse and can return to the hearing whenever he wishes.
District Judge Barbara Walther ordered Jeffs’ stand-by counsel to represent him, but having been sidelined by Jeffs for the last two weeks, attorney Deric Walpole struggled Saturday to keep up with witnesses and evidence he was seeing for the first time.
At one point Saturday, Walpole jumped from his chair to object while a former FLDS member testified. He asked Walther to have the jury leave the courtroom.
“I have no idea what that man is getting ready to say,” Walpole said.
Walther overruled the objection. Jeffs burned through a slate of seven high-powered attorneys, including Walpole, in the six months before he decided to represent himself, and Walther has said he did so in an effort to manipulate the court and stall the case against him.
Walpole declined to say whether he’ll call witnesses during the sentencing phase. He has indicated that his plea for leniency will focus on Jeffs being a product of his environment and a culture that hasn’t changed for centuries.
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