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December 2006
Plane crash reported in Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County officials are responding to a reported plane crash tonight near Briscoe Field. Initial reports indicate possible fatalities. The report came from an area to the south of the airport off U.S. 29 in Lawrenceville. Check back for updates.
I-85 reopens at Spaghetti Junction after bus fire
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All lanes of I-85 at Spaghetti Junction were reopened Thursday night after a spectacular bus fire that made a nightmare of the afternoon rush hour.
Southbound and northbound lanes on I-85 had been stalled at Spaghetti Junction as emergency officials worked to contain a bus fire.
By 8:40 p.m., all lanes were reopen, well more than three hours after the fire.
A compressed-gas powered Gwinnett County Transit bus caught fire in the middle of southbound rush-hour traffic Thursday afternoon.
Lanes were closed because emergency workers feared that the bus’ fuel tanks might explode, said Georgia DOT spokeswoman Teri Pope.
The cause of the fire is unknown. Authorities said the bridge had no structural damage but the bus was destroyed and would have to be dragged to the highway’s shoulder.
The 2002 Orion-7 bus was making an empty run from Gwinnett County into DeKalb to pick up passengers, said John Autry, general manager for Gwinnett’s transit contractor, Veolia Transportation.
The bus driver was uninjured. The bus stopped in the high-occupancy vehicle lane of I-85 southbound just before 5 p.m.
All traffic heading south stopped on I-85 as a fire tanker truck was brought to the scene, said Pope.
DeKalb protesters block traffic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vowing to go to jail for their cause, about 50 protestors are blocking traffic on Memorial Drive today in the latest march to draw attention to police shootings in DeKalb County.
Marchers, who are headed from the county jail complex to nearby I-285, include former DeKalb NAACP president John Evans and state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas (D-Atlanta).
Some of the marchers said they were willing to be arrested for the cause. No police were on the scene shortly after 11 a.m.
The march is the third of its kind in recent weeks. This year, DeKalb police have been involved in 12 deadly shootings. One officer has been killed.
Some community activists have called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate. The DeKalb County District Attorneys office has agreed to review all of the shootings.
MARTA back on track after derailment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MARTA has restored service on the north-south line following a derailment this morning at the Medical Center station in Dunwoody.
MARTA officials say human error is likely to blame for the 8:40 a.m. accident that caused no injuries but led to 20-minute delays on the north rail line for much of the day.
MARTA spokeswoman Joselyn Baker said the derailment happened as a northbound train was being taken out of service. Baker said the train had stopped just north of the station due to an as-yet undetermined mechanical problem.
The train was traveling at a low rate of speed when the front two wheels encountered a switched portion of the track and ran off the rails, officials said.
An undetermined number of passengers were taken off the train and evacuated by bus and train, said Fulton County Fire spokesman Gregory Chambers.
“MARTA responded fast and got folks off the train and onto buses,” Chambers said. Others were put on other trains, Baker said.
Service resumed on a single track, delaying both northbound and southbound service, Baker said.
Baker said a derailment on the MARTA system was very unusual.
“It is not a common occurrence,” she said. “It’s something that will be fully investigated.”
The last derailment occurred in 1996, officials said.
The problem began after MARTA began “single-tracking” around the stalled vehicle, enabling northbound trains to use southbound tracks. The trains switch back to the northbound tracks just north of the Medical Center station.
The stalled train, however, improperly moved north into the switched portion of track. When the train began to move back south toward the platform to offload passengers, the wheels ran off the rails, officials said.
