2 accidents fatal
to driver, walker
A man was killed Tuesday in Rudy after losing control of his vehicle and crashing, Arkansas State Police reported Wednesday.
Gary German, 40, of Barling was driving his Chevrolet Trailblazer north on Hobbtown Road when the vehicle went off the road near Shadow Wood Lane about 4 a.m.
The vehicle overturned when German, attempting to regain control, steered the vehicle back onto and across the road. German was ejected from the SUV and killed.
A passenger in the Trailblazer, 18-year-old Donovan Askins, was injured in the crash. He was taken to Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas for treatment.
In Little Rock on Tuesday, a man was killed when he was struck by two vehicles while crossing the street.
State police reported that Joseph Herndon, 38, of Mabelvale, was walking across Arch Street north of Deana Lane when he was struck by an SUV about 6:11 a.m.
Herndon was knocked into the opposite lane of traffic and then struck by a pickup.
The drivers of the vehicles were unable to stop in time, according to state police.
Herndon was pronounced dead at the scene.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Oil-spill lawsuit
in Baker’s court
The joint federal and state lawsuit over the 2013 Mayflower oil spill has been reassigned to U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker.
Because of the retirement of Judge James M. Moody, the clerk’s office transferred all pending cases to Judge James M. Moody Jr. on Monday. On Tuesday, the younger Moody recused himself from the oilspill case “due to a previous relationship with counsel or a party.”
Defendants are Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co., which operates the 850-mile Pegasus pipeline, and Mobil Pipe Line Co., which owns the pipeline that runs from Illinois to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The lawsuit filed by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas Christopher Thyer accuses the companies of violating the Arkansas Water and Air Pollution Control Act, the Arkansas Hazardous Waste Management Act, the federal Oil Pollution Act and the federal Clean Water Act.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEFactory accident
kills Floral man
NEWPORT - An Independence County man died Tuesday after he was pinned by heavy machinery at a Newport factory, Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas said Wednesday.
Larry R. Ball, 56, of Floral was injured Tuesday when an aluminum rolling mill cradle opened suddenly and trapped him against machinery at Norandal Aluminum’s Newport plant, Lucas said. He was taken to Harris Hospital and then transported by helicopter to the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, where he died at 4:50 p.m. Tuesday.
Lucas said the death appears to be accidental.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors traveled to the Newport factory Wednesday to conduct an investigation, he said.
Tuesday’s death was the second industrial fatality in two months in Newport. On Feb. 19, Michael E. Myers, 49, of Bald Knob died when molten steel from a tipped kettle poured on him at the Arkansas Steel Associates factory in Newport.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Body of woman discovered in fire
JONESBORO - Firefighters found the body of a woman in a burned home in Craighead County on Tuesday evening, Bono Fire Chief Trent Edwards said.
Karen Judy Rogers, 54, was found on the kitchen floor of her home on Arkansas 91 West near the Westside Consolidated School District.
A Craighead County deputy reported seeing smoke billowing from the home about 9 p.m. and notified the Fire Department. When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the front windows and the living room was fully ablaze, Edwards said.
Edwards said the fire appeared to have begun in the attic. He said the cause is still under investigation.
“It’s a tragic thing whenever we lose someone,” he said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
LR work-site fall
kills Cabot man
A Cabot man died Wednesday morning in a 20-foot fall in what appeared to be an “industrial accident,” officials said.
Little Rock police went to 1900 W. 65th St. about 9:42 a.m. and found James Taylor motionless in the parking lot, according to police reports.
A co-worker, Jerry Strader, said he and Taylor were on the roof of the 20-foot tall warehouse building taking a 200-foot measurement.
Strader told police that when “he turned around” he lost sight of Taylor but later found him face down in the parking lot.
Taylor was pronounced dead at the site.
Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs said Taylor may have slipped or may have been knocked off balance by the wind.
The body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office and an autopsy is pending, Hobbs said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Double murderer pleads for retrial
An Oklahoma man convicted in 2005 of killing two women at a De Queen cemetery monument company is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to hear his arguments that he deserves a new trial.
The state conceded Thursday that lawyers for Mickey Dale Thomas had unavoidable reasons for being late with filings but argued against two other points Thomas’ attorney, Jeff Harrelson, raised with the court.
Harrelson argued that Thomas’ trial attorney should have called a police officer to the stand to affirm that there was no indication of sexual assault of the victims, 46-yearold Mona Lee Shelton and 45-year-old Donna Marie Cary.
He also said the trial shouldn’t have been moved to Pike County.
Prosecutors in Oklahoma have accused Thomas of killing a Broken Bow woman, but he hasn’t been tried in that case.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/14/2014