European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 13, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes thursday december 13, 1990trains collide in Boston injuring 180 Boston up an Amtrak train front Washington rammed into a commuter train in Boston s Back Bay rail station during Rush hour wednesday morning injuring about 180 passengers some seriously. No fatalities were reported. A total of 168 passengers Yere taken to several local hospitals said Boston mayor Raymond Flynn. One train s conductor was said to be critically injured. The crash occurred at 8 24 am. As a Massachusetts Bay transportation authority commuter train from Stoughton pulled into the Back Bay station. The Amtrak train the a night owl front Washington smashed into the Meta train As passengers were preparing to get off said Meta spokeswoman Nancy Sterling Gleason. A similar Accident occurred at the Sta lion three years ago and was blamed on a mechanical signal problem. National transportation safety Board officials were in route to the scene of wednesdays crash. A a i think everybody is alive a said or. Sandy Thomson an orthopaedic surgeon from Bostons children s Hospital who was at the scene. A anybody who could have had serious injuries was put on the ambulance f first and is on their Way to the Hospital a the train station was filled with heavy smoke and emergency workers were evacuating commuters while they worked to extricate the injured from the to twins. Emergency medical personnel treated injured people on the platforms and firefighters used the jaws of life tool to Cut into the wreckage and a remove people trapped inside. Buses and ambulances transported the injured to several hospitals. Some passengers said they crawled out of train windows to escape the wreckage. Charlotte Craven one of the passengers said there was a loud crash then the lights went out and people Starlet screaming. A it was just a mess a said one train passenger identified Only As Michelle. A the doors All flew open. Some windows shattered. People were just All Over the floor screaming  she said the woman next to her a smashed her head and a Man next to iter injured his Back. A we saw the people lying there there were people with blood All Over their faces cuts and broken Bones. One Man looked like he was having a convulsion a she said. A this situation is horrendous where the trains collided a said mayor Flynn. A eve never quite seen anything like it in my life. You  even identify that it was a train. And you can imagine the havoc that it created a d Martin Bander a spokesman for Massachusetts general Hospital said incoming patients were suffering a variety of injuries. He said some 50 injured were brought to Massachusetts general the Meta declared an emergency at the station and initially shut off Power on the Orange commuter line from Jackson Square and Roxbury Community College to Charlestown. The Orange line was later restored without stops at the Back Bay station. Authorities said it was too Early to speculate on the cause of the crash. Drawing on Talent a these Are the faces behind Lour of America s most popular comic strips the four cartoonists a Mort Walker from left of a Beetle Bailey a Bill Keane of a family circus a Dean Young of a lil Ondley and Hank Kite hum of a Dennis the menace a were a amp Ltd away from their drawing boards to celebrate King features Syndicate s 75th anniversary. The party took place tuesday at the world financial Center in new York heart valve maker to warn 23,000 users of potential defects Washington up the government tuesday approved a manufacturer s plan to warn some 23,000 North americans about possibly fatal defects in their artificial heart  Hilcy inc. Of Irvine calif., a subsidiary of Pfizer inc. Of new York decided to notify All patients with Bjork Shijey a a convex concave heart valves. The move came in response to concerns raised by the food and drug administration and the Public citizen health research group. Quot Quot / a a v a a a a the valve was voluntarily withdrawn from the Market in november 1986, about five years after the first reports of  fractures in the mechanical valves surfaced. However thousands of patients still have the devices and reports of fractures continue. About 82,000 people worldwide to 23,000 in the United Stales and Canada a were implanted with the valve. As of july 395 of the valves had fractured resulting in 252 deaths. However Public citizen said the death toll May be As High As 750 because not All the deaths have been officially reported. A when one of these valves fractures the patients life can sometimes be saved if the valve is replaced quickly. That a Why it is important for patients to ask their doctors How. To recognize Early signs of valve fracture and what to do should it occur a Fra Deputy commissioner Janics Benson said. The Fra estimates that fractures strike about seven of 10,000 patients per year a risk of about 0.1 percent. Shiley officials have said that replacing valves already in patients would be Foolhardy because the death risk from replacement surgery would be about 5  to take off pounds Sensi by the Cox news service most passengers probably Haven to noticed but the nation s airliners Are Hying a Little higher a Little slower and a Little lighter. Quo pretty soon the armrest ashtrays w ill Start disappearing. Its All part of the fallout from the persian Gulf crisis which sparked a dramatic run up in Jet fuel prices and sent airline managers looking for new ways to Cut consumption. A 7. Spending More time at High Altitude slowing Down and eliminating any unnecessary weight a such As the 50 pounds of ashtrays in a typical mid size Airliner a Are three methods they be come up with. There Snow a joke boating around the Industry about new a health and fitness programs with the thinly veiled aim of getting pilots and flight attendants to slim Down in the name of saving fuel. A can a passenger weigh in be far behind a joked one airline manager. Fuel costs have Keg been among the biggest expense for the airlines most of which have conservation committees and policies that Date to the 1970s, but Price surges since August reinvigorated the conservation urge even though prices have recently subsided they Are still 40 percent higher than in Midsummer and carriers have continued the fuel saving search. A they want to avoid any accusation of crimping on serv ice so most of the changes will not be readily apparent. Atlanta based Delta air lines has taken several imperceptible fuel saving Steps according to Walter Overend chairman of Delta a fuel conservation committee. A he said Delta has v. A slowed Down 500 of its 2,500 daily flights. A Boeing 727 that normally cruises at .81 Mach Mach 1 is the Speed of sound now cruises at .80 much. A it probably Means two or three extra minutes per flight Overend said a but when you multiply it by 500 flights its a significant fuel  / a replaced heavy plastic Magazine covers with paper ones saving about 20 pounds per plane. A modified some Jet engines to lower Idle speeds and re emphasized single engine taxiing before Takeoff and after Landing. Quot a.  considered replacing heavy Metal cargo Bay floors and shelves with lighter ones. Delta already has replaced most of its cargo Container doors with Canvas flans. V. A adelta the nations third largest airline consumes 7.5 million Gallons of Jet fuel each Day. At the current spot Market Price of about 88 cents a gallon that a about $6.6 million Worth. That Price is Down significantly from the spot Market High of $1.39 a gallon in october but it s still 40 percent higher than prior  Gulf crisis. Jet fuel has gone up substantially More than  executives believe the main reason is that Oil companies would rather anger a few airlines with no real alternatives than anger tens of millions of motorists. A quote a a. A a v. Overend said the Delta fuel task Force has set a Sim pie goal for savings a was much As we possibly  other airlines  on similar campaigns. Eastern airlines which was in dire financial Straits even before fuel prices took off last week joined Conti Pentyl airlines in removing ashtrays reasoning that they Are obsolete since in flight smoking is banned. Other carriers shy away from even talking about weight reductions in the passenger compartment. A you can be very diligent about carrying the Correct number of meals a said Tim Smith a spokesman for. American airlines. A beyond that you done to want to risk. A Quot pillows or vat Ion Campaign. Delta and american for instance have the Industry youngest fleets. The Douglas md-80, used extensive by both airlines is 35 percent More fuel efficient tha the Boeing 727,Smith said. Eastern american and us air Don t paint their Butir planes which also reduces weight. A full paint Job add 41h pounds to a Douglas do id american estimates