"Speed, rain scrutinized in fatal N.Y. crash | Associated Press April 07, 2014
NEW YORK — Speed and rain were being investigated as possible factors in the deadly crash of a car into a New York City creek that left four young people dead, police said Sunday.
Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of Friday’s accident, which sent a car with five people inside tumbling into a creek on a dead-end street in Queens.
The only survivor was the 20-year-old driver, who escaped from the submerged car. He called 911, but it was too late.
His four friends were trapped at the bottom of Steinway Creek, a trash- and waste-strewn inlet off the East River. The Steinway piano factory is a few hundred yards from the crash site.
Police said the driver had tried to make a quick U-turn as he suddenly faced the dead end Friday evening, amid rain and fog. Instead, the 2009 Honda Accord slipped on the wet road and he lost control of the vehicle that flipped into the water, police said.
On Saturday, police visited a car service business that had security cameras facing the street in hopes of learning the speed of the Accord in the seconds before it crashed.
Fire department divers pulled the four victims from the car late Friday evening, within a half hour of the accident.
The five friends were returning from a birthday celebration for Crystal Gravely, who died along with Darius Fletcher, 21; Jada Monique Butts, 19; and Jaleel Furtado, who was 20.
They all lived in two square blocks of Queens’ East Elmhurst neighborhood and had gone out to celebrate Gravely’s 20th birthday, which was Saturday, according to friends and neighbors.
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Was alcohol a factor?
Also see: Harvard student injured from fall
Was alcohol a factor?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Harvard student dies after falling from building
He was in economics and worked at a hedge fund?
What kind of environment do they have over there at Harvard?
When alcohol is a factor:
"100 held after Calif. party turns violent" | Associated Press April 07, 2014
ISLA VISTA, Calif. — About 100 people were arrested and at least 44 people were taken to the hospital during a weekend college party in Southern California that devolved into a rock- and bottle-throwing melee, authorities said.
The violence broke out in the densely populated beachside community of Isla Vista around 9:30 p.m. Saturday during the annual spring break party known as Deltopia, the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s office said.
Kelly Hoover, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said things escalated after a University of California Santa Barbara police officer was hit in the face with a backpack filled with large bottles of alcohol.
Authorities said some members of the crowd of 15,000 then began throwing rocks, bricks, and bottles at officers, lighting fires and damaging law enforcement vehicles.
‘‘It was an emergency situation where we had to call in mutual aid,’’ Hoover said.
Authorities reported using tear gas, pepper spray, and foam projectiles to disperse the surging crowd.
At least five more officers were injured in the melee.
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These sort of things seem to be happening at an increasing clip.
Have the American people finally had enough of state-sanctioned murder by its security services?
