Hundreds gather wreaths at veterans’ cemetery

Amidst a sea of white headstones, more than 400 people collected Christmas wreaths Sunday afternoon during the culminating event of the eighth annual Friends of the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery’s Wreaths for Veterans project at the cemetery.

Despite the bitter cold wind, Sgt. Secoya Allen, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command, happily gathered wreaths alongside fellow members of the nonprofit motorcycle club, Unleashed Beasts.

“In the club, we’ve lost a few friends that are buried here. It’s a good thing to do,” Allen said. “It makes you feel good.”

Local motorcycle groups are active in community service, said Amy Shores. She is a member of the Queens of Sheba, an all-female motorcycle club.

“We come out here every year. Many of our members are military veterans. It’s a beautiful thing,” Shores said of the community support for the military.

“This is our way of paying respect to the fallen soldiers,” said Pam Townsel, an Army veteran. “It touches your heart.” she said, citing the mixture of sadness and pride she feels as she looks out over the rows of grave markers, contemplating “our brothers and sisters in combat.”

Each year the cemetery adds about 1,000 graves.

“We started with 400 wreaths, and now we have over 5,000,” said Hilary Shine, Killeen city spokeswoman. The event is a massive undertaking that requires thousands of volunteers and fundraising throughout the year.

The wreaths were prepared before Thanksgiving, and then placed at the headstones Nov. 30 by thousands of volunteers.

Following Sunday’s retrieval, the wreaths will remain in storage until next year.

Six cadets and four senior members of the Shoemaker Composite Squadron, of Belton, and Apollo Composite Squadron, of Georgetown, Civil Air Patrol attended the wreath gathering in uniform.

“It’s not as flashy as putting (the wreaths) out, but we do the things that need to be done,” said Cadet Collin Grahl.

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Source: Killeen Daily Herald (Lozano, 01/06)

Vehicle/Motorcycle Accident Regularity Possibly Linked to Brain Miscalculating Time of Impact of Smaller Objects

Newswise — Check the local news, and stories of cars pulling out in front of motorcyclists run regularly in the headlines. Recent research by a Texas Tech University psychologist suggests that the regularity of this problem isn’t necessarily a case of poor driving or carelessness, but may be related to a basic human judgment error.

Pat DeLucia, the coordinator of the Human Factors Psychology Program, said her results show that small, near objects can appear farther away than larger, farther objects. The study is published in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

"Small, near objects can appear to be farther away than large, far objects, and so it is thought that that could contribute to motorcycle car accidents." DeLucia said.

Her finding that an object’s size affects distance perception may be the basis of car drivers miscalculating motorcyclists’ distance and speed.

"You can think about the research in terms of if you had a really big ball like a basketball or a softball and you compared that to a marble and both were approaching you, you would see that bigger one is closer even if it was farther away," she said.

The brain uses two visual information cues for judging time to impact, she said. In the first, a moving object is reflected on the eye’s retina. It expands as it approaches the eye, providing the brain accurate information about when the object will hit. This is called an optical invariant.

However, the brain also uses “rules of thumb” as well, such as various “artist” depth cues as a shortcut, she said. Many times, the brain interprets objects with a larger retinal image as closer. Since motorcycles are smaller than cars, the brain may use this shortcut to judge a smaller motorcycle farther away than it actually is, DeLucia said.

“With computer simulations, we had a big, far object and small, near object approaching the viewer, where the small object would hit first,” she said. “We wondered if people would choose the big one, based on the artist depth cue of relative size or choose the smaller one based on the more accurate optical invariant. Unexpectedly, people picked the bigger object again and again. We found people relied on rules of thumb.”

This effect of size on collision perception violates theories of perception that believe people evolved to rely on the most accurate information, such as optical invariants. Instead, DeLucia’s findings suggest that perception is based on multiple information sources.

This size-arrival effect can lead drivers to misjudge when a vehicle would arrive at an intersection and could be considered a contributing factor in motorcycle/vehicle accidents.

DeLucia hopes to find funding from the Department of Transportation to create an education program to inform drivers of her findings to reduce the incidents of these types of accidents.

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Source: Newswise (AP, 9/09)

Number of motorcycle deaths should lead to more helmet laws

On a trip to Fort Worth’s main post office a couple of months ago, I noticed the traffic on Interstate 35W North moving very slowly on this “expressway,” especially for a Saturday afternoon.

Rather than get angry, I blamed myself for not remembering all the construction that’s been there for months. At least the return trip would be quicker, I thought as I dropped off my mail.

But in less than 10 minutes something happened that also had brought the southbound lanes almost to a standstill, a situation I didn’t realize until I was already on the entrance ramp with no way to avoid the massive jam.

This time I was about to get angry until I saw the flashing lights of emergency vehicles ahead and realized that there had been an accident. As my car inched along and got closer to the scene, I was not prepared for what I saw.

On the side of the highway was a wrecked motorcycle, and a short distance away lay a covered body, with only a man’s shoes exposed. An ambulance was leaving with its lights flashing, causing me to believe that perhaps a motorist had been injured as well.

I learned later that afternoon that only the motorcycle had been involved in the crash that killed a 44-year-old Haltom City man and critically injured his female passenger. Neither the driver nor the passenger wore a helmet, police said.

I’ve long been concerned about the number of motorcycle fatalities in this state and nationwide each year, but the problem became more real for me after I viewed that awful sight.

In March, there were four motorcycle fatalities in Fort Worth in one week, and on Sunday a 24-year-old Cleburne man was killed when he was thrown from his motorcycle as he tried to make a turn.

While other traffic deaths have been on the decline, motorcycle fatalities have been rising in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Although down slightly last year to 460 people killed compared with 488 in 2011, annual motorcycle deaths in the state have increased 56 percent since 2004.

Nationally there were about 4,550 deaths in 2012, doubling the amount in the mid-1990s, USA Today reported.

The number of fatalities, as well as serious head injuries, began to rise significantly as states repealed or relaxed their laws requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets.

Texas had such a law but changed it in 1997 from mandating helmet use for all riders to requiring helmets for those under 21 and those who have not completed a rider education course or secured a minimum of $10,000 in medical insurance coverage. Then in 1990 Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill that removed the minimum amount of insurance coverage.

Helmet use decreased significantly after those laws were passed, placing more riders in danger of being killed or gravely injured. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, during the first full year after the weakening of the Texas helmet law in 1997, “deaths jumped 31 percent compared to the year prior to repealing its law.”

The CDC says helmets reduce the risk of death by 37 percent and the risk of head injury by 69 percent. In 2010, the U.S. saved $3 billion because of helmet use and could have saved $1.4 billion more had all motorcyclists worn helmets.

Some people are calling for national laws to address the problem, but I won’t go that far.

I do think individual states, and particularly Texas, should pass laws requiring helmet use by all riders — drivers and passengers.

At the same time we must continue to educate the rest of the population about motorcycle safety, including reminding motorists to be on the lookout for those riding two-wheel vehicles.

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Source: Star-Telegram (Sanders, 8/07)

Traffic fatalities on the rise in West Texas

The screech of tires on asphalt. A crash.

An ambulance wails, lights flashing, but arrives too late. Another person is killed on a Texas road — It happens every day.

Statewide in 2011, 3,016 people died in 2,797 crashes, according to state and national data. The Big Country is no stranger to fatal crashes: In 2011, 68 people were killed in 66 crashes in the region.

And according to the most recent available statistics, these numbers are trending upward in West Texas.

INVESTIGATIONS

Armando Renteria is a certified crash investigator for the Sweetwater Police Department. He has been in that position since 1999.

“We look at different things, like at which angle did it (the vehicle) leave the roadway? Was it gradual?” Renteria said. “We look at the different skid marks and markings in the median.”

There were 28 recorded crashes in Nolan County from 2008-12. Sweetwater is that county’s seat, which means Renteria has seen his fair share of crashes.

He said investigators use algebra, calculus and trigonometry to determine how crashes happened.

“You know you’re in high school and you say, ‘I’ll never have to do algebra again?' It’s not true in this job,” he said.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study traffic fatalities and publish statistics on them.

Their analysis supports some widely held conventions about traffic fatalities — that driving in excess of the posted speed limit is dangerous, and so is driving a motorcycle.

Other statistics might be more surprising, though:

Single-vehicle crashes account for the majority of traffic fatalities.

More fatal crashes occur on U.S. and state highways than on interstate highways.

Though general data for 2012 is available, 2011 is the most recent available year for in-depth information.

SINGLE-VEHICLE CRASHES

Renteria said single-vehicle accidents — rollovers in particular — can be especially deadly.

“If you’re doing 75 mph and there’s a rollover, you’re bouncing around in that vehicle like crazy,” he said. “You see all kinds of trauma — brain injuries, broken bones.”

Single-vehicle accidents are even more difficult to investigate than other fatal crashes, Renteria said, because frequently the only witness to the crash is dead.

“You have to go back and figure out the root cause of the accident,” he said. “Is there a mechanical defect? Is there some traffic device defect?”

Since 2007 more than half of fatal crashes in Texas have been categorized as single-vehicle crashes.

Common causes of single-vehicle fatalities include rollovers and crashes into stationary objects such as utility poles, concrete barriers, culverts and guard rails.

Vehicles striking trees, light poles and fences are the most common listed causes of single-vehicle fatalities.

Renteria said drowsiness and a phenomenon known as “road hypnosis” can contribute to these types of crashes.

Watching the yellow line as you drive down the road “can make you tired and put you to sleep,” he said.

Renteria stressed the importance of getting a good night’s rest before embarking on road trips. Driving tired just leads to more accidents, he said.

“There’s a certain thing you need to do before you get out on the road. Make sure you get plenty of rest,” he said. “Take plenty of breaks while you’re driving. You don’t have to do it in one trip.”

ARE INTERSTATES REALLY MORE DANGEROUS?

Interstate highways have some of the highest posted speed limits and have the most miles traveled of any roadways in the state, but account for the fewest number of fatal wrecks.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is recognized as the pre-eminent crash investigator in the state.

Spokesman Senior Trooper Phillip “Sparky” Dean said interstates tend to be safer.

“Interstates are for the most part pretty straight,” he said. “You’ve got two lanes going the same direction.”

State and U.S. highways were the leading locations of fatal wrecks in Taylor County from 2008-11, accounting for 24 of 68 fatal crashes.

Dean said this could be explained by people getting complacent with driving on familiar highways.

“People are crashing on a straight piece of roadway,” he said. “A lot of that is the attitude that it’ll never happen to me — This could happen to you. No one is exempt.”

Carol Rawson, TxDOT traffic operations director based in Austin, said interstates are the safest because they’re built the best.

“Our interstate highways are built to our highest standards. We have nice lanes, big shoulders. The interstate is your best level of road,” Rawson said.

U.S. and state highways account for 28,000 miles of Texas roadways. U.S. 83, at 899 miles, is the longest. The state depends on these highways systems to deliver traffic through many of the state’s rural areas, Rawson said.

“The majority of our crashes are occurring in rural Texas,” Rawson said. “People believe the fatalities are happening in our cities.”

Statewide in 2011 more fatal crashes occurred on state and U.S. highways than on any other type of road.

Rawson said the most dangerous of the U.S. and state highways are those with two lanes moving in opposite directions with no center divider between them. TxDOT is planning to place cable barriers on these roads, along with widening some by 2 or 4 feet, she said.

“A lot of highways don’t have edge lines,” Rawson said.

In Nolan and Howard counties, however, interstate wrecks accounted for the most traffic fatalities from 2008-11. In Howard County, most of its 23 crashes were on Interstate 20, mainly near Big Spring. Nolan County saw half of its 20 fatal crashes occur on I-20, mostly near Sweetwater.

DISTRACTED DRIVING

Though TxDOT and NHTSA do not keep specific data about distracted driving, Dean identified it as a major cause of highway fatalities.

“There’s all kinds of distractions in today’s vehicles,” the DPS’s Dean said. “That driver needs to do nothing but drive that car. Unfortunately, driving the car is the last thing they’re doing.”

Eating, talking on the phone, texting, smoking and messing with the CD player while driving are some examples of distracted driving.

“We’re making the vehicles safer, but we’re not making the drivers safer,” Dean said.

“The factor has always been there,” Renteria said. “It’s just now ... being looked at a little more with the evolvement of technology. You see these wrecks where the teenager is texting, and they’re deceased now.”

Renteria suggested that parents advise their children to pull over to the side of the road before using their phones to call or text.

“Texting?” he said. “It can wait.”

Dean said that a driver with a learner’s permit is not allowed to use a phone in the car at all.

SPEEDING

Statewide, speeding was a factor in about one third of fatal crashes since 2009, according to data.

In the Big Country, speeding was a factor in about 35 percent of the fatal crashes from 2009-11. It was a factor in nearly all of the crashes in Nolan County in this time period.

In Taylor County speeding was a factor in 39 percent of fatal crashes in that time period.

The speed limit on some interstate, state and U.S. highways was raised from 70 to 75 mph in 2012. U.S. 277 north of Abilene saw the posted speed increase in late 2012.

National and state data hasn’t caught up to reflect this change, but Rawson said she doesn’t expect there to be a substantial uptick in fatality numbers because “most people were traveling at that speed anyway.”

“We’re making sure (speed limits) are safe and appropriate,” Rawson said.

PEDESTRIANS

In the state in 2011, 418 pedestrians were killed by vehicles.

Pedestrian-vehicle fatalities in Texas increased by 17 percent in 2011 from the previous year, a jump to 418 deaths from 357.

Three pedestrian deaths were recorded in the Big Country in 2011. In Taylor County, one pedestrian was killed on Key Lane, south of Potosi. One was killed in Eastland County on County Road 323, and another was killed in Brown County on U.S. 183.

In Abilene already this year, two pedestrians have been killed by vehicles. Tina H. Brown was killed in early January by a pickup as she was crossing South First Street. Zachery Joseph Melton was killed by a pickup as he was walking at night on Sayles Boulevard a few days later. Also in January a Ranger woman was killed while trying to help motorists who were involved in a multivehicle accident on Ranger Hill.

“We’re having a lot of pedestrians killed on our highways,” Rawson said.

MOTORCYCLES

From 2007-11 in Taylor County, 29 percent of motor vehicle fatalities involved motorcyclists.

About 43 percent of those killed were wearing helmets.

In the state, motorcycle fatalities accounted for about 11 percent of fatalities for that time period.

About half of the 471 people killed in motorcycle crashes in 2011 were wearing helmets.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of motorcycle fatalities,” Rawson said. “That can be attributed to gas prices that have gone up. There’s a group of baby boomers that love getting the Harley motorcycles when maybe they’re not so familiar using them.”

TxDOT estimates that 127 motorcyclists were saved by wearing helmets in 2011.

If all of them wore helmets — instead of the observed rate of 46 percent — the agency figures 94 more lives could be saved.

In January, Clayton Dowlin Johnson, 18, was killed on when his motorcycle collided with an SUV on South Treadaway Boulevard.

His passenger was taken to Hendrick Medical Center and survived. Both Johnson and his passenger were wearing helmets.

SEAT BELTS

Even though the state has had a seat belt law since 1985, it wasn’t until 2010 that all passengers, including those in the back seat, had to buckle up.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports seat belt use in Texas has remained at about 94 percent for the most recent two-year period (2010-11).

Rawson said TxDOT is focused on getting the percentage of the population who don’t wear a seat belt to start wearing one.

“That group, if we could get them to buckle up, the fatality number would go down,” she said. “When you’re thrown out of the vehicle, your chance of dying goes up.”

“Who in Texas does not know that it’s the law to wear a seat belt?” Dean said.

TxDOT estimates 200 lives could have been saved in 2011 if everyone wore a seat belt.

In Taylor County in 2011, more than half of people killed in motor vehicle crashes were wearing seat belts, six of 11.

DWI

About a third of traffic fatalities in the state in 2011 involved drivers with blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher, which is the legal blood alcohol limit for operating a vehicle in Texas.

The percentage of official crashes involving a drunken driver have risen slightly from 2007 to 2011, despite increased educational campaigns, and DPS trooper and city police patrols near holidays.

Troopers currently are increasing spring break patrols until March 17.

“Impaired driving is the most hazardous occurrence on our roadways, but it’s also the most avoidable,” said Warren Diepraam, vehicular crimes prosecutor for Montgomery County. “If you’re unlucky you may kill yourself or someone else. It’s just not worth the risk.”

More DWI traffic fatalities occur in Texas than in any other state: 1,213 deaths were recorded in 2011.

Diepraam said those numbers would be even higher if all drunken driving deaths were properly recorded.

“That number is a significant underestimate,” he said.

Diepraam said depending on the time and location of DWI-related deaths, a fatality crash might not be recorded as a drunken driving death.

A fatal crash that occurred in a private neighborhood is one example, he said.

The prosecutor, who has been at the scene of more than 1,000 fatal crashes, said he works hard to send a message to potential DWI offenders.

“The message that we like to send is that vehicular homicide is a crime, and it’s a violent crime,” Diepraam said. “If you kill somebody, you need to go to prison.”

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Source: Reporter News (Collins, 3/9)

Memorial for Dale Lahti, avid motorcyclist

Dale Lahti, 82, Alamo, Texas, formerly of Turtle Lake, Wis., died Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, at Weslaco, Texas, following a motorcycle accident in which he sustained severe head injuries.

Dale was born at West Allis on March 16, 1929, and grew up on the family farm at Mosquito Lake, south of Almena.

Dale served with the U.S. Army and was part of the Berlin Air Lift at the end of WWII.

He married Leona Mjelnek in 1954. Dale and Lee were "second parents" to their nephews and nieces until Lee's death in 1980.

Dale was an avid motorcyclist, traveling throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico on his bike. He met his second wife, Carole Varga, while he was on a motorcycle trip in the Black Hills. They were married in 1987.

Dale retired from Almena Co-op, where his expertise in flooring was well known in the area.

He was a life member of Almena VFW Post 8512, a past commander of the post and was instrumental in the acquisition of the building that is the post home. He was a member of Bethany Lutheran Church from childhood until recently when he joined the Santa Rosa United Methodist Church in Texas, where his wife is the pastor.

Surviving, in addition to his wife Carole, are a sister Elaine Ehrler of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a brother Don (Shirley) of Fountain Hills, Ariz.; a stepdaughter Janice Van Camp of Cumberland and her children; stepson Donald (Darla) Varga of Balsam Lake and their children and grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Dale was preceded in death by his first wife, his parents George and Hilda (Thorbeck) Lahti and a sister Renee Krecker.

Services will be held Wednesday, Jan. 25, from Santa Rosa United Methodist Church.

Memorial contributions can be made to Justice for Our Neighbors South Texas, c/o Carole Lahti, 1048 N. Alamo Road #58, Alamo, TX 78516.

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source: Barron News Shield (1/18)



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