News – Page 3031 – 105.7 WDNY

School districts struggle to establish COVID-19 testing, frustrating parents

September 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Angela McCray left her job as a pharmacist to homeschool her three children as pandemic lockdowns closed public schools in Monroe, North Carolina. So when public schools in the region announced reopening plans, she was excited to return her daughter for in-class instruction.

But McCray became concerned when her school district — Union County Public Schools — didn’t announce any official plans to test students or even require masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“I was being patient knowing that they would see the numbers increase and would change their mind,” she said.

That never happened.

In fact, the school district decided to roll back its quarantine and contract-tracing requirements for students with positive cases, citing the need to ease the workload of school staff.

It was a move that shocked and angered parents.

“As a pharmacist, as a mother, I couldn’t stand by and continue to watch that happen,” McCray said. “We had to start getting action in place to figure out how we can push our elected officials to step in and make some changes.”

The district only reversed course on its quarantine requirements when the state threatened to sue. But it still has no plans to offer COVID-19 testing to students or to require masks, despite both being recommended by public health officials.

“Testing is not offered by the school system, and it is offered within the county,” said Tahira Stalberte, assistant superintendent for communications and community relations at Union County Public Schools. “If anyone wants a test, they can call our local health department and they can get them a test.”

Six months after President Joe Biden offered states $10 billion so schools could routinely test students and staff to prevent asymptomatic cases, the school year is being hindered by the virus.

Some 925,000 children have become infected since school began this fall, according to data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics, a staggering spike that has pushed many more kids into quarantine.

Some states have rejected their share of the $10 billion in federal funds for COVID-19 testing in schools while others have been painfully slow in actually implementing virus mitigation plans.

A survey of the nation’s 100 largest school districts from the Center on Reinventing Public Education found that less than 15% of those schools are utilizing federal funding dollars to establish COVID-19 in-school screening programs.

A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department said the federal government has disbursed the funds. But when it comes to the utilization of those dollars, it’s up to the states to distribute the money to those that need it, including school districts.

The options for school districts range from working with the state government to stand up a screening program, outsourcing the testing and screening process to a third party vendor, or completely overseeing the student testing process themselves, which many school administrators — particularly in smaller districts — have described as an impossible task without additional support.

The challenges in implementing steady in-school testing and mitigation strategies have been particularly acute in the South and Midwest.

Texas has reported more than 125,000 positive COVID-19 cases in the first month since schools in the state reopened. Now with the spike in student caseloads, many Texas school districts are rethinking their testing strategies in the hopes that immediate changes will keep schools open and curb spread of the virus.

After two teachers working in the Connally Independent School District — serving the Waco, Texas area — died from coronavirus-related complications, masks were mandated for every student and staff member. The requirement placed the school district in direct opposition to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who signed legislation banning mask mandates.

“With the loss of two beloved teachers, we know that concerns for physical and mental health are heightened,” said Wesley Holt, Connally ISD superintendent, in a memo to parents. “We want to assure you that we are focused on measures to take care of our students and staff.”

As matters like testing and mask-wearing remain fraught, highly politicized issues, school districts that find themselves in disagreement with their governors on these matters have had to adopt a go-it-alone approach.

Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds rejected $95 million in federal funds offered to the state for in-school coronavirus testing, complicating matters for school districts urgently looking for funding to establish testing.

“There is confusion about funds Iowa had available last year for testing and contact tracing supposedly being returned before school districts knew they were available,” said Phillip Roeder, a Des Moines Public Schools spokesperson, of the state’s returned federal COVID-19 testing dollars.

In one of the nation’s wealthiest counties, Fairfax County in northern Virginia, officials have been slow to establish any kind of formal testing regimen for students and staff.

“We are exploring a public-private partnership to offer testing and vaccinations across schools and expect to have more soon,” said a Fairfax County Public Schools spokesperson in a statement. “Our current layered mitigation strategy has meant that less than 0.2 % of our in-school student and staff population has been quarantined due to a COVID exposure.”

Some school districts that have been slow to implement systematic testing have found themselves in the difficult position of choosing between overseeing the logistics of managing a COVID-19 screening programs at the beginning of a new school year or involving third-party vendors to manage them.

“In many states, there are a number of different testing vendors they [schools] can choose from,” said Leah Perkinson, manager of the pandemics division at the Rockefeller Foundation. “One of the most unfortunate parts about all of this is that there is a ton of guidance out there, but there’s just not a lot of awareness about what the choices are.”

The New Orleans Public School system utilizes a testing program through the Louisiana Department of Health, in which students and their families can go to more than 91 school-based sites to get free routine COVID-19 PCR tests and receive results in under 24 hours.

The school district, which serves over 44,000 students, gives schools the choice of opting into the testing program, but some schools within the district have decided it’s more appropriate to mandate testing. Overall, New Orleans school officials say participation in the testing program has shown promise, especially given an unnaturally busy hurricane season.

“We believe that following Hurricane Ida, it has actually boosted participation,” said Morgan Ripski, COVID-19 testing coordinator for New Orleans Public Schools. “The vast majority of our schools were not yet reopened, but what they did was open their sites as testing centers so students and parents could get tested before returning to the classroom.”

In the first few days after Hurricane Ida hit, more than 13,500 students were tested through the New Orleans Public School’s testing program in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health. The COVID-19 positivity rate was 1%.

For parents who learn their child has been exposed to COVID-19 in a school district like Union County Public Schools that has no testing protocols, the fear of what might happen next is all-consuming.

Kenan Medlin’s son is immunocompromised and she was worried for days when she learned he was exposed to another student with COVID-19. Her son’s recovery from respiratory illnesses typically takes longer than for other children.

Medlin decided to pull her son out of class and homeschool him until the school district requires masks and offers testing.

“You should be able to go to public school and know that your child is going to be safe, cared for, and that the school will do everything they can to protect your children, but they’re just not doing that,” she said. “This is backing parents into a lot of corners and putting them in impossible situations.”

Police investigate ‘suspicious’ death of mother and child at Padres stadium in San Diego

September 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SAN DIEGO) — A woman and her 2-year-old son died Saturday afternoon after falling from the stands at Petco Park before the Padres game, investigators said.

The 40-year-old woman and her toddler were at a dining and concession area on the concourse level of the San Diego, California, stadium when, for an unknown reason, they fell three floors down and hit the sidewalk, the Padres said in a statement Sunday.

First responders rushed to the stadium but weren’t able to save the mother and son, according to the team.

Investigators said the victims’ deaths “appeared to be suspicious.”

Although the victims have been identified, the authorities and baseball team have not released their names to the public, and have only said the deceased were San Diego residents.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life at Petco Park last evening. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of those involved,” the Padres said in a statement.

Investigators are still going through evidence and looking for eyewitnesses who were present at the time of the incident.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

Mourners pack Gabby Petito’s funeral as parents give emotional eulogies

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(New York) — A large crowd of mourners packed a public funeral service for Gabby Petito, the slain 22-year-old travel blogger, on Sunday afternoon in Long Island, near where Petito grew up in Blue Point, New York.

The service was live-streamed online and showed the full length of a wall in a chapel at Moloney’s Holbrook Funeral Home, decorated with photos of Petito. An altar at the front of the chapel was covered in flowers and memorial candles.

Petito’s parents and relatives sat in the front row of the chapel accepting condolences from friends, family and strangers.

A prayer card handed out to mourners contained a poem title “Let it be,” a phrase Petito had tattooed on her arm.

“Do not grieve for me for I am free. I am traveling a path the Lord has taken me,” the poem reads. “Be not burdened with times of sorrow. I wish for you the sunshine of tomorrow. Perhaps my time seemed too brief. Do not lengthen it with undue grief. Lift up your hearts and share with me the memories that will always be.”

During the service, Petito’s father, Joseph, and her stepfather, Jim Schmidt, former chief of the Blue Point Fire Department, spoke.

Joseph Petito described his daughter as having “ridiculously blue eyes” and told mourners that “her nature was always to smile and treat everybody kind.”

“I want you to take a look at these pictures, and I want you to be inspired by Gabby,” Petito said. “If there’s a trip you guys want to take, take it now. Do it now while you have the time. If there is a relationship that you’re in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now.”

Jim Schmidt added that throughout his career as a firefighter he has had to arrange funerals and give eulogies but added, “not one of them has prepared me for this moment.”

He pointed out a photo behind him of Petito as a little girl and said, “I still see Gabby as this.”

“Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children. This is not how life is supposed to work,” Schmidt said.

He added, “Gabby, at 22 years old, helped teach me that you can always make money but you can’t make up for lost time. Gabby loved life and lived her life every single day. She is an example for all of us to live by, to enjoy every moment in this beautiful world as she did. To love and give love to all like she did.”

Petito’s mother spoke out the night before the funeral with a heartfelt message to supporters.

Nicole Schmidt posted a message on Facebook late Saturday night following a 12-day silence.

“As I scroll through all the posts, my heart is full of love,” Schmidt wrote. “I wish I could reach out and hug each and every one of you!!! Your support has been so overwhelming, and we are so filled with gratitude.”

Schmidt also posted a series of family photos of her daughter as well as images of Petito traveling, telling supporters, “Please know what you are all doing for us does not go unnoticed, and with all of you by our side, we will get #justiceforgabby.”

Petito’s body was discovered a week ago Sunday in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming after her family reported her missing on Sept. 11. She vanished while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who authorities are still searching for and have named a “person of interest” in her death, which has been ruled a homicide.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Laundrie stemming from his alleged unauthorized use of a debit card to withdraw $1,000 during the period in which Petito was missing, according to the Associated Press. The FBI has not disclosed whose card Laundrie allegedly used.

Joseph Petito announced Saturday the creation of The Gabby Petito Foundation, which he said will provide resources and guidance to families of missing children.

“No one should have to find their child on their own,” he wrote on Twitter, “we are looking to help people in similar situations as Gabby.”

A vigil was held Saturday night in Florida for Petito.

People who were touched by her story gathered in North Port, Florida, outside the Laundrie home, attempting to convey a message to the family that they want justice for Petito.

Residents of Blue Point honored Petito on Friday night by lining streets in the city with thousands of memorial candles.

What is Title 42? Amid backlash, Biden administration defends use of Trump-era order to expel migrants

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden vowed to implement a more humane approach to immigration than his predecessor, but now the Biden administration is facing backlash over its use of a Trump-era order to rapidly expel thousands of migrants, mostly Haitian nationals, without giving them a chance to apply for asylum within the United States.

The process is known as Title 42, a reference to part of a U.S. public health code, and according to advocates challenging the administration in court, its use violates U.S. asylum laws.

Despite a chorus of criticism from advocates and Democratic lawmakers over the handling of the crisis at the border in Del Rio, Texas, the administration is defending the use of Title 42 in court.

After more than a week of growing controversy, immigration authorities in Del Rio, Texas, on Friday finished clearing out an encampment of mostly Haitian migrants that at one point expanded to about 15,000 people.

So far, more than a dozen flights have taken about 2,000 people back to Haiti, according to the Department of Homeland Security. About 17,400 have been moved from the camp for processing or to initiate removal proceedings where they will have the chance to claim asylum. About 8,000 at the camp returned to Mexico, according to DHS.

What is Title 42?

Title 42 is a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that “allows the government to prevent the introduction of individuals during certain public health emergencies,” said Olga Byrne, the immigration director at the International Rescue Committee.

Rarely used over the past few decades, the Trump administration used an interpretation of Title 42 to issue a public health order during the COVID-19 pandemic to rapidly expel migrants at the border, citing concerns over the spread of the virus, without giving them a chance to apply for asylum, Byrne said.

“U.S. law says that any person in the United States or at the border with the United States has a right to seek asylum,” said Byrne.

“The legal issue at hand [with the use of Title 42] is that there’s nothing in the law that allows the government to expel [migrants] without any due process,” she added.

Between October 2020 and August 2021, 938,045 migrants were expelled under Title 42, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Who is being deported under Title 42?

Nearly two week ago, thousands of migrants, mostly Haitian nationals, began arriving at the Texas-Mexico border in Del Rio. At one point, there were more than 14,000 migrants, with thousands sheltering under an international bridge.

The influx of migrants from Haiti came after civil unrest erupted this summer following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenal Moïse as well as a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation.

Many Haitian migrants have also been in South America for about a decade ever since the 2010 earthquake caused massive damage and social and economic instability throughout Haiti considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

“We are definitely seeing a high number of Black immigrants, Haitian immigrants in particular, immigrants from the African continent who are not even given the tiniest opportunity to explain their experiences and request asylum,” said Breanne Palmer, the policy and community advocacy counsel at the UndocuBlack Network, an advocacy group for undocumented Black individuals.

When asked last Friday what is being done to remediate the situation in Del Rio and what has caused the recent increase of migrants at that port of entry, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said DHS would continue to use Title 42 to its fullest extent to help expel individuals arriving at the border.

“…we have the authority to expel individuals under the laws that Centers for Disease control have,” Mayorkas told ABC News. “It is their public health authority under Title 42 and that is what we will bring to bear to address the situation in Del Rio, Texas.”

Byrne said that the Biden administration has chosen to deport Haitian migrants without screening them for coronavirus, despite the fact that COVID-19 testing is widely available as tourists and travelers have continued to flow into the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Title 42 is the most efficient tool at the government’s disposal for quick expulsions to quickly get people out of the U.S. without due process,” Byrne said.

The Biden administration has exempted unaccompanied minors from deportation under Title 42 but is defending in court its use of the public health order to deport families, arguing that lifting the public health order would lead to overcrowding at DHS facilities, and that an influx of migrants along with the delta variant surge, poses a public health risk.

The court battle and what’s next

The American Civil Liberties Union, joined by a group of civil rights organizations, filed a preliminary injunction in court, challenging the expulsion of families under the use of Title 42.

“Anybody who arrives at our border is supposed to be able to seek asylum if they claim a fear of persecution,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer in the case.

“The Haitian situation is a dramatic and horrific illustration of the harms caused by the Title 42 policy,” he added. “… families are literally being pushed back into the arms of persecutors and cartels, without any hearing.”

On Sept. 16, a federal judge granted the injunction, blocking the use of Title 42 to expel families.

“The Title 42 Process is likely unlawful,” judge Emmitt Sullivan wrote in the ruling, referencing protections for asylum seekers in place under current U.S. immigration laws.

But the judge’s order, which was appealed by the Biden administration, does not apply to single adults and will not take effect for 14 days or Thursday, Sept. 30.

And according to Byrne, because the Biden administration has already applied for a stay of the injunction pending appeal, it is likely that the order will not go into effect on Thursday.

In the meantime, the expulsion of migrants has continued.

“The government is using those two weeks now, rather than to organize itself at the border … to quickly expel as many Haitians as it can,” Gelernt said.

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.

Trump return to White House ‘would be a disaster’ for US intelligence: Former DHS whistleblower

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A former senior Department of Homeland Security official who once accused the Trump administration of politicizing intelligence said Sunday that a return of President Donald Trump to the White House in 2024 “would be a disaster” for the U.S. intelligence community.

“(Former President Trump) has denigrated the intelligence community, he puts out disinformation — and that’s an existential threat to democracy and he is one of the best at putting it out and hurting this country,” Brian Murphy, who once led the DHS intelligence branch, said Sunday in an exclusive interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.

Murphy, a long-time federal law enforcement official, made headlines last year after filing a whistleblower complaint accusing Trump-appointed leaders of politicizing intelligence by withholding or downplaying threats that ran counter to Trump’s political messages.

The 24-page complaint, filed in September 2020, named former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and former acting Secretary Chad Wolf as trying to “censor or manipulate” intelligence bulletins related to Russian meddling in the presidential election and the threat of domestic white supremacist groups.

“I became a whistleblower because when I arrived at DHS in 2018, from the outset, everything that I had stood for — you know, finding objective truth when I was in the FBI and serving in the Marines and serving the American public — was quickly told to me that’s no longer acceptable,” Murphy said Sunday.

In his complaint, Murphy further accused Nielsen, Wolf and other top officials of scrambling to gather and prepare intelligence reports that aligned with Trump’s public remarks in the months leading up to the 2020 election.

“There was intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative,” Murphy said Sunday. “When I got to DHS, it was all about politics.”

In one instance, Murphy wrote in his complaint that he was “instructed” by Wolf “to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran.”

On Sunday, Murphy said “there was a push-on across government at the senior levels — cabinet officials — to do everything possible to stifle anything” about Russia’s interference.

“They did not want the American public to know that the Russians were supporting Trump and denigrating what would soon be President Biden,” Murphy added.

Murphy also claimed Sunday that discussing white supremacy as a national security threat became a “third-rail issue” within the department after the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I disagreed with that, I made that known to my superiors,” Murphy said Sunday.

A DHS spokesperson said last year that the agency “flatly denies that there is any truth to the merits of Mr. Murphy’s claim.”

Wolf responded last September during a speech that any effort to “paint recent DHS actions as examples of mission drift or politicization … could not be more wrong.” James Wareham, Nielsen’s attorney, told ABC News at the time that Murphy’s allegations “would be laughable if they were not so defamatory.”

Murphy’s explosive claims nonetheless fueled concerns that Trump and his appointees had sought to politicize the intelligence process to more closely support the administration’s legislative and political agenda.

Shortly before filing his whistleblower complaint, Murphy was reassigned within the department after it was revealed that his intelligence unit had included reporters’ tweets in bulletins disseminated to law enforcement networks across the U.S. — a practice that experts said was out of the agency’s purview.

Questioned by Stephanopoulos about that, Murphy said Sunday he “understands why, at the time, the media reacted the way they did” to reports his branch collated public-source information about reporters, citing the alleged credibility gap between the White House and the American people.

Murphy added that “at no time was I aware or direct anybody in my organization to collect information on journalists.”

“People did not trust (the Trump administration). There was a war against the media and I wasn’t going to be a part of that,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s last day at DHS was Friday.

Pfizer CEO says it’s possible to distribute both boosters and primary doses

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday it’s possible to provide both COVID-19 booster shots as well as doses for people who have not yet been vaccinated.

“I think it is also not the right thing to try to resolve it with an ‘or’ when you can resolve it with an ‘and,'” Bourla told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “It’s not, ‘Shall we give boosters or give primary doses to other people.’ I think the answer should be, ‘Let’s give both boosters and doses for other people.’”

With millions more Americans now newly eligible for a booster COVID-19 shot from Pfizer, Bourla’s optimism punctuates what’s become a protracted, hot-button issue amongst the scientific community over who needs the boost and when.

Just after midnight Friday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky endorsed her independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine six months after their second dose.

In a notable departure, Walensky partially overruled the panel by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group the panel rejected in its recommendation.

The CDC’s final sign-off marked the starting gun for sleeves to start rolling up for a third shot at retail pharmacies and doctors’ offices across the country.

It also in part buttoned up what has become a seething scientific debate after the Biden administration announced there would be “boosters-for-all” before any review from the regulatory bodies or their independent groups. While the White House’s political appointees had endorsed President Joe Biden’s timeline, some of their career scientists and advisers vehemently objected to the incomplete data they were being asked to assess.

The booster debate has played out as the delta variant sweeps across states and threatens hard-fought gains against the virus here at home and as the World Health Organization continues to call for a moratorium on booster shots in the interest of more equitable distribution of primary vaccinations, as many still countries struggle with providing first and second doses.

Gathering world leaders virtually Wednesday on the U.N. General Assembly’s sidelines, Biden announced the U.S. would donate another half billion doses of Pfizer vaccine to lower-income nations.

Pfizer, the first vaccine maker to administer shots in the U.S. more than nine months ago, had cited data from Israel and elsewhere showing the vaccine’s robust protection began to wane with time. In April, Bourla predicted a third coronavirus dose was “likely” to be needed within a year of the primary two-dose course. In July, the company announced plans to ask the FDA to authorize a booster shot of the original vaccine six months after the second dose.

Earlier this month, Pfizer’s submitted brief to the FDA made the case that it’s time to “restore” full protection from the COVID-19 vaccines, even though they are still protecting most vaccinated people from being hospitalized.

Pelosi may delay vote on Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may not bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor Monday as she previously committed to, she said Sunday.

“I’m never bringing to the floor a bill that doesn’t have the votes,” Pelosi told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“You cannot choose the date,” Pelosi said. “You have to go when you have the votes in a reasonable time, and we will.”

Pelosi had previously agreed to put the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor to be considered by Sept. 27, after moderates in her caucus demanded a vote.

“It may be tomorrow,” Pelosi added Sunday.

On Saturday, the House Budget Committee approved a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that calls for investments in climate change policy, childcare and other social programs.

Pelosi told her colleagues in a letter on Saturday they “must” pass the bill this week along with a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“The next few days will be a time of intensity,” she wrote.

Pelosi also said on Sunday’s “This Week” that the price tag for the bill could drop in negotiations.

“That seems self-evident,” Pelosi said, acknowledging the $3.5 trillion topline number could be lowered.

This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.

6-year-old girl never strapped into seat before fatal amusement park ride: Report

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(DENVER) — The 6-year-old girl who died on a ride at a Colorado amusement park earlier this month was never strapped into her seat — and two operators failed to notice even after a monitor alerted them to a seatbelt safety issue — before the ride plunged 110 feet, according to a state investigation.

Wongel Estifanos was visiting Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, located atop Iron Mountain in Glenwood Springs, with her family on Sept. 5 when she went on the Haunted Mine Drop ride, a free-fall drop down a pitch-black shaft.

After reviewing video surveillance and operating manuals, investigators with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety determined that when Wongel got on the ride, she sat in a previously unoccupied seat on top of two already-locked seatbelts, and that “multiple operator errors” and “inadequate training” contributed to the fatal accident, according to a report released Friday.

The girl was only holding the tail of one seatbelt across her lap, but when checking her seat, a ride operator “did not notice that the seatbelts were not positioned across her lap,” according to the report.

The ride’s control panel alerted the operator to an error with one of the seatbelts on Wongel’s seat, indicating that that seatbelt had not been properly unlocked after the previous ride cycle, according to the report. The operator returned “multiple times” to check the seatbelt and buckle it to no avail, but “did not believe the error because they were convinced the restraint had been cycled,” the report stated.

A second ride operator then unlocked the seatbelts using a manual switch, clearing the error on the ride’s control system, “without unloading passengers to determine what the issue was,” the report stated. This decision did not resolve the problem — that Wongel was not wearing the seatbelts — and demonstrated that the operator “did not have a complete understanding” of the control system’s safety indicators, according to the report.

The second operator also checked the girl’s seatbelts but “did not notice that neither of the seatbelts were positioned across her lap,” according to the report.

With no error on the control panel, the second operator was then able to dispatch the ride.

“Because Ms. Estifanos was not restrained in the seat she became separated from her seat and fell to the bottom of the [Haunted Mine Drop] shaft, resulting in her death,” the report stated.

Operators were not formally trained to unbuckle all seatbelts following each ride, though it was common practice and one that the first operator performed “inconsistently” on earlier rides, according to the report.

The operators are supposed to buckle the seatbelts for each of the ride’s six passengers and confirm the restraints are over their laps, per the manufacturer’s operating manual, as “passengers cannot be expected to know or correctly execute the safety procedures for this ride,” the report stated. Both operators failed to follow these procedures, according to the report.

The report also determined that the operators’ training “did not appear to emphasize the inherent risks of the ride,” and that the manufacturer’s operating manual “does not instruct operators on how to properly address errors.”

The Haunted Mine Drop is currently closed, and future plans for the ride are “undetermined,” the amusement park said.

“Safety is, and always has been, our top priority,” Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park founder Steve Beckley said in a statement following the release of the report. “Since opening our first ride just over 15 years ago, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has delivered more than 10 million safe and enjoyable rides.”

“We have been working closely with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety and independent safety experts to review this incident,” he continued, noting that the amusement park will review the report “carefully for recommendations.”

“More than anything, we want the Estifanos family to know how deeply sorry we are for their loss and how committed we are to making sure it never happens again,” he added.

In a statement to Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV, Dan Caplis, an attorney for the Estifanos family, said that Wongel’s parents had received the report and called on people who have “experienced problems” with the Haunted Mine Drop to come forward.

“Wongel’s parents are determined to do everything in their power to make sure that no one ever dies this way again,” said Caplis, who told the station he intends to file a lawsuit against the park on behalf of the family.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

3 dead in Amtrak train derailment in Montana

September 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — At least three people are dead after an Amtrak train derailed in remote northern Montana on Saturday.

Seven cars on the train, Empire Builder 7/27, derailed at about 4 p.m. local time near Joplin, according to Amtrak. The rail line confirmed there were injuries in the accident, but offered no more details.

The three deaths were confirmed by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department. Officials did not say how many total were injured.

There were approximately 146 passengers and 16 crew members on board the train, Amtrak said. The train was traveling from Chicago to Seattle.

Several passengers on the train shared images of the front cars off the track, with some tipped on their sides.

Amtrak said in a statement that anyone with questions about friends or family who were traveling on the derailed train should call 800-523-9101.

It was not immediately clear what caused the derailment.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is launching a “go team” to investigate the derailment.

Liberty County is an extremely rural part of northern Montana, with only a few thousand residents despite being larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.

Great Falls is the largest nearby city, about 100 miles south of Joplin. The state capital of Helena is about three hours south of Joplin by car.

ABC News’ Stefan Joyce and Matt Foster contributed to this report.

The push for electric vehicles may be killing sedans for good: Experts

September 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Get your sedan while you still can.

The Toyota Avalon, Mazda 6 and Volkswagen Passat will soon join the fast-growing list of sedans sent to automotive exile. Americans’ unyielding appetite for sport utility vehicles and trucks are certainly one reason. Another? Electric vehicles, some experts say.

“Sports cars and sedans were already on the edge of the cliff,” Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor at Cars.com, told ABC News. “EVs may be responsible for giving them the final shove.”

Ford, Lincoln and Chrysler abandoned the sedan segment long ago. More automakers will likely follow.

“When automakers put their attention elsewhere, something is going to lose and it’s usually the products that were already endangered,” Wiesenfelder said. “Automakers are abandoning a shape — not a need. Mid-size cars are now a subcompact SUV.”

Stephanie Brinley, an analyst at IHS Markit, argued EVs are now the reason automakers are shunning sedans and canceling production of longtime models.

“Sedans and sports cars will continue to fall away for a bit longer,” she wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “It’s sad to me that these types are both being squeezed by the need to invest in EVs and electrification.”

Sales of SUVs and crossovers accounted for 51% of the U.S. market in 2020, up from 30.2% in 2020, according to Brinley. Sedan sales are in reverse: 22.6% in 2020 versus 46.2% in 2010.

“If we weren’t struggling with the costs of [electric vehicle] transition, some sedans may be able to survive even at lower volumes,” Brinley told ABC News. “EVs are capital-intensive and expensive. Product development money is going to EVs.”

Rory Carroll, the editor-in-chief of Jalopnik, said automakers have one objective: To make money.

“If you’re going to invest in something you won’t take money away from products that are selling,” he told ABC News. “Sports cars and sedans — those are not selling right now. Automakers are in the business to sell cars.”

Michael Tripp, vice president of vehicle marketing and communications at Toyota North America, defended the Avalon’s 28-year production run, saying the large sedan had a “storied history” with 30,000 units sold annually. Its quagmire? SUVs.

“What’s driving migration away from passenger cars isn’t a government mandate or what automakers are doing — it’s customer tastes,” Tripp told ABC News. “The [large sedan] segment is down 70% to 75% in the last four, five years. It has nothing to do with the Avalon’s powertrain. It has to do with the segment.”

The pandemic — and not EVs — likely accelerated the slide away from sedans, according to Autoweek editor Natalie Neff.

“Automakers have been steering away from that segment for a while,” she told ABC News. “People haven’t been buying sedans … it’s why Ford got out of the car building business a few years ago.”

Plus, she added, “the practicality of a sedan is far less than a crossover. It’s not like the sedan offers greater performance or fuel efficiency or utility.”

More Americans are slowly starting to go electric. Brinley said battery-electric vehicle registrations totaled 2.4% of the U.S. market in the first six months of 2021 and 1.8% last year. IHS Markit predicts 32% of U.S. light vehicle sales to be BEVs by 2030.

“EVs have not been widely accepted on the market partly because their development has been focused on straight line performance,” said Jalopnik’s Carroll. “It’s a cool trick but not a driving experience. My mom would be terrified to go that fast.”

Ten years ago, few if any Americans were interested in EVs when General Motors launched the Bolt and Volt, Wiesenfelder said. But government policy and an industry-wide push are shoring up these billion-dollar bets.

“There is a gamble in abandoning future product plans for anything but EVs,” Wiesenfelder admitted. “The last big push fizzled. It won’t this time. More manufacturers are in the game.”

Brinley is still convinced sedans have a place in the crowded automotive market. EVs may be trendy now, she said, but the stakes are high.

“For a lot of consumers, EVs are still a bit of a mystery. It will take time for adoption,” she said. “It will be a very long transition despite the hype.”

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