Leads and Nut Graphs

1.     One man is left dead and two men are hospitalized this morning after a car collided with a fire engine at the intersection of Post Rd. and Rollins Ave.  At 7:10 AM Charles R. Lydon was driving north on Post Road approaching the intersection at 40 mph.  His van then struck a fire engine that was responding to an emergency call.  Both its lights and sirens were in operation.  The two firemen aboard the vehicle were hospitalized; their condition is not currently known.  Lynden was killed upon impact and his van was totaled.  Damage to the fire engine was estimated at $50,000.   The fire engine was traveling at an estimated 25 mph, while responding to a report of a store fire.  Authorities have not yet determined who was at fault. 

2.     A report issued in DC today by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said that there are advantages to driving big cars. A study by the institute found that small two-door models, and many midsize sport or specialty cars have the worst injury and repair records.  Many of these smaller cars show injury claim frequencies and repair losses at least 30% higher than average, while many large cars, station wagons and vans show 40-50% better than average claim records.

3.     An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, out today, concerned the dangers of hotdogs.  According to a researcher, “if you were trying to design something that would be perfect to blow a child’s airway, it would be a bite-size piece of hotdog.”  The researcher concluded that children under the age of four should never be given a whole hotdog to eat and that hotdogs should never be cut crossways.  Studies estimate that every five days, someone, somewhere in the United States, chokes to death on a hotdog.  Other risky foods for children up to age 9 include: candy, nuts, grapes, apples, carrots and popcorn.

4.     A local family is distraught today after finding out that the body they buried was not of their loved one.  The family of Kristine Belcuore received an apologetic call from the morgues office saying that the body they had buried was that of a woman whose corpse had been unclaimed for a month.  The error was discovered after the medical examiners office realized the month-old corpse had disappeared.  According to the morgues office someone probably “misread” the identifying tag.  During presumed funeral for Mrs. Belcuore the family never viewed the remains, the casket remained closed throughout the proceedings.  A family relative said, “we went through all the pain and everything, all over the wrong body, and now we have to go through it again.”  Mrs. Belcuore died of a heart attack last week at the age of 51.  She leaves behind a husband and four children.