What will it take to wake up Texas to its horrific problem with construction crane collapses? Texans like to think of their state as No. 1, but sometimes it’s No. 1 for the wrong reasons, and that’s too often the case with construction crane fatalities.

In 2005 and 2006, Texas led the nation in construction crane fatalities, with a total of 26 for that period, the Associated Press reports. Now Texas has four construction crane fatalities for 2008, after Friday’s collapse of a 300-foot construction crane at the LyondellBasell refinery at the Houston Ship Channel. Seven others were injured.
Did this accident have to happen? No. Almost by definition, no accident “has” to happen, and all accidents are preventable. In this case, it seems laws and regulations are extremely loose concerning the kind of towering construction cranes which collapsed in Houston and the two which collapsed earlier this year in New York City, killing nine people there. (more…)

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Sky-high gas prices were bound to make one change in this “green” era of ecological emphases: Americans aren’t just recycling, but cycling.

That’s right, we’re locking up our gas-guzzlers and picking up bicycles as a means of transportation, and not just for recreation. Those $4.50 gallons of gas have fueled a new bike binge and a retro go at traveling to-and-fro on two self-powered wheels.

That’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing. It’s good because it saves people gas money, contributes to their physical fitness and reduces the amount of gunk which cars spew into the atmosphere. It’s bad because bicyclists, like motorcycle riders, are extremely vulnerable in traffic, and many people in cars fail to see them or yield to them. (more…)

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You say tomato, and I say forget about it? No way — not any longer — since the Food and Drug Administration has lifted its warning on tomatoes which sprang from America’s ongoing outbreak of salmonella Saintpaul.

Does that mean we’re home free, as far as the threat of bathroom runs spurred by this awful bacterium? No, sadly, it does not. Given the salmonella cases in which tomatoes were served with peppers or other foods, the FDA stills sees a possible link between the digestive-tract bug and jalapeno or Serrano peppers. You probably should add cilantro to that tossed salad of possible culprits, as well.

The FDA now advises people to avoid eating raw jalapeno or Serrano peppers. And young children and the elderly should be especially on the alert, since their immune systems aren’t as strong. (more…)

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Again, tragedy has struck because a public place was unsafe. Two boys, ages 4 and 10, were killed Wednesday night at an apartment complex in southwest Houston when concrete sections of an outdoor stairwell collapsed on top of them. Another boy, age 9, was injured and is in a hospital, possibly with a broken leg.

Were the boys at fault? How could they be? They were innocently playing and too small to have caused severe structural damage to the apartment complex. But residents say the outdoor stairwell was corroded and had holes in it. In other words, it needed repairs — repairs which could have saved two boys’ lives and spared another from serious injury. (more…)

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Again, the blood thinner heparin is in the news – and it’s not good news.

Fourteen babies in a Corpus Christi hospital recently received an accidental heparin overdose. Two of the babies – twins — have died. Several have been discharged, while the others are being closely monitored.

This tragedy recalls the highly publicized event last November when film star Dennis Quaid and his wife’s infant twins were given an overdose of heparin which was 1,000 times more than needed. The problem then involved potentially confusing packaging, not to mention, ultimately, the carelessness of hospital personnel. The problem in Corpus Christi apparently involved an error in the mixing process in the hospital pharmacy at Christus Spohn Hospital South.
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Pit bulls are no laughing matter. Unfortunately, some people think it’s funny to inflict pit bulls on others, and they don’t see why everyone shouldn’t find the same twisted humor in them.

Take comedian Andy Dick – please. He reportedly tried to check in at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas last weekend while accompanied by his pit bull – which then bit a guest. Dick was not admitted to the facility.

I can just see a dictionary’s entry for the term “no-brainer,” to wit: no-brain-er (noun) refusing Andy Dick and his pit bull admittance to your facility.

Dick is a gleefully offensive performer who’s known for pushing envelopes of witless vulgarity and mindless tawdriness while making a complete nuisance of himself. So he probably thought bringing a belligerent pit bull to a hotel where guests were trying to relax and enjoy themselves would be most amusing.

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You see it each day: You’re driving in a parking lot, in the same direction as other cars are parked and pointed, given the lanes and lines, and another driver enters from the other end going the wrong way.

Unless they’re piloting a unicycle, they can’t pull into a parking space, because they’re pointed in entirely the wrong direction. But they can keep everyone else from proceeding, at least until they back up and get out of the way.

Now really, how hard is it to travel in the right direction? Down is down, and up is up, right? And similarly, the wrong way is the wrong way. Yet people do it so often that you wonder how they avoid traffic fatalities.

Actually, they don’t. Just over the holiday weekend, a wrong way driver who was also speeding slammed into an oncoming Jeep in West Harris County. The wrong-way driver died at the scene. The man who was driving in the right direction suffered serious injuries.

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Proper, safe driving is filled with many “don’ts,” and perhaps the most familiar is “Don’t drink and drive.” But here’s another “don’t” worth filing away in your cranium and heeding forevermore: “Don’t drive if you’re about to fall asleep,” because falling asleep at the wheel is no excuse for the nightmare of traffic tragedies.

A Houston Police officer is dead and another is seriously injured reportedly because another man failed to heed that “don’t.”

The man, Hung Truong, says he worked a 12-hour shift starting at 5 p.m. last Saturday, June 28, and ending at 5 a.m. Sunday, June 29.

Soon after that, his vehicle reportedly slammed into barricades at a road construction site at the Katy Freeway and Highway 6. The out of control vehicle hit and killed Officer Gary Gryder, 47, a 25-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, and seriously injured Officer Joe Pyland. Both were working the site off-duty to assist in traffic safety.

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