In the Nation
Thrill-ride firm reviews fatality
ARLINGTON, Texas - A German roller-coaster maker is sending officials to a North Texas amusement park to inspect a ride after a woman fell to her death.
Gerstlauer Amusement Rides in Munsterhausen, Germany, will investigate what led to Friday's accident at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.
As the ride was starting, witnesses said, the woman expressed concern about the coaster's safety bar not completely engaging. Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker says the victim died after falling from the 14-story Texas Giant roller coaster, but she wouldn't give specifics.
A project manager for Gerstlauer, Tobias Lindnar, says the company has never had problems with car safety bars on any of the roughly 50 roller coasters it has built in the last 30 years worldwide. - AP
Wife: Arguing before limo fire
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - The estranged wife of the Northern California limousine driver who was behind the wheel when a fire in the vehicle killed five women celebrating a wedding said he had been arguing with her on the phone moments before the blaze, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.
Rachel "Raquel" Hernandez-Brown told the newspaper that, during their shouting match, Orville Brown turned up the music in the limo so his passengers couldn't hear the tense conversation.
One of the nine nurses in the vehicle said she banged on the partition to warn the driver that the back of the limo was filling with smoke. Brown told authorities that he initially misunderstood the warning as a request to smoke a cigarette and kept driving. - AP
Teen abduction is investigated
LUBBOCK, Texas - Lubbock police are investigating a teenage-runaway girl's report that she was abducted, sexually assaulted, and held captive in a house for the last six weeks.
Police Capt. Jon Caspell said the girl told officers that she was abducted from Amarillo about two months ago and that, on Friday, she crawled out a window of the Lubbock house where she'd been kept and fled to a McDonald's, where she called police.
"We believe her to be credible in her claims, and we believe her to be the victim of multiple sexual assaults as well as kidnapping," Caspell said after a SWAT team served a search warrant Saturday at the home.
Three men surrendered without incident and were detained for questioning. Their names haven't been released since they haven't been arrested, though at least one of them had an outstanding warrant, Caspell said. - AP
Elsewhere:
A tornado
packing 110 m.p.h. winds hit Ursuline College in northeast Ohio early Saturday morning, collapsing a wall of the school's athletic center and damaging other buildings. No one was injured, officials said.
