European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 a the stars and stripes Friday August 30, 1991subway Motorman charged in crash that killed five a f it a  a. S firefighters View the wreckage of the subway train that crashed in new York. A by new Day new York a the Motorman who drove the train in new Yorkus worst subway Accident in More than 60 years was charged wednesday night with five counts of second degree manslaughter. Robert Ray who could not be found until six hours after the crash told police wednesday that he had been drinking and dozed off just before the nightmarish crush that killed five passengers. Police said rays blood alcohol Content was 0.21, More than twice the states Legal level of intoxication in driving a car. Although authorities found a crack vial with traces of cocaine in the Motorman a compartment investigators downplayed a drug link to the Accident while awaiting test results. Five people were killed and More than 200 were injured when a train jumped a switch track just North of the 14th Street Union Square station in Manhattan at 12 10 . The 10-car train carrying about 500 passengers rattled against machinery and Walls hammered pillars and collapsed into a twisted subterranean Deathtrap of stainless steel plastic Orange seats wire and Glass. Those who perished were All new yorkers leaving or going to work. They were a Richard Limehouse 41. A nurse heading Home after working at new York Hospital Cornell medical Center. A Victor Lewis 36, of Harlem going to his Post As a Security guard at the internal Revenue service building in lower Manhattan. A Audrey Pascal 43, on her Way Home to Brooklyn from her Job at the grand Hyatt hotel. A Delores Pryce 37, also going Home to Brooklyn after working the night shift As a nurses aide in a Flushing nursing Home. A Jimmie Robles 39, a maintenance worker going Home to Brooklyn after working at a Bronx social service Center. Ray escaped without injury in new Yorkus worst train wreck since 1928 when 16 people were killed and 100 Hurt in a crash. A rider Clarence Thomas 57, said after the crash that Ray remained in the Motorman Scab for five minutes while passengers in the crippled front car yelled at him. Thomas who filed notice that he plans to sue Over the Accident said the Motorman did not emerge until rescuers arrived. Police later Learned that Ray went upstairs to Union Square which was clogged with ambulances and covered with people on stretchers and quietly watched from the Park. He was picked up by police about 6 . As he arrived at his Home. New York transit authority president Alan f. Kiepper said that Ray had been tested twice for drugs once in june 1988, As required upon his promotion to Motorman and again on Jan. 15, 1991, when he was suspended in an Accident in which he ran a red signal. The tests were negative Kieppe said. The wreck knocked out subway service for 400,000  fuels drive for uniform transit drug tests Washington apr the discovery of an empty crack cocaine vial in the operators cab of a wrecked new York subway train is lending new urgency to the push by Federal transportation officials for uniform drug and alcohol testing of mass transit workers. Rapid rail transit systems in cities such As new York where a crash Early wednesday ripped a subway train apart Are exempt by court order from the strict . Drug and alcohol testing regulations imposed on airlines railroads and Long distance truckers. All of the nations rapid rail systems have testing programs of one kind or another. But James Kolstad chairman of the National transportation safety Board said they Are neither uniform nor consistent. He noted for example that the new York system does not provide for random drug testing a key feature of the Federal program. Transportation Secretary Samuel k. Skinner said that while the accidents cause has yet to be determined Congress should swiftly pass pending legislation giving the Urban mass transit administration the authority to impose a National drug testing program. Federal drug at Ohot testing rules for other transit workers went into effect at the beginning of last  with Mercury pose Little Hazard experts say by the Baltimore Sun Bethesda my. A there is no hard evidence that the Mercury in dental fillings poses any health threat experts said wednesday. While chewing releases Mercury vapor from amalgam fillings the kind found in the Mouths of 200 million americans the amounts Are Liny a and do not cause verifiable Adverse effects on human beings a said a statement issued by a 14-member panel meeting at the National institutes of health Campus. Panel chairman William p. Mchugh director of the Eastman dental Center at the University of Rochester said there was no reason for patients to have their amalgam fillings removed a As Many sought to do following the airing of cd so 60 minutes report on the controversy in december. But not enough research has been done the panel also said into the possible health risks tied to the use of amalgams and other less commonly used filling materials including Gold ceramics and plastics. All those materials or compounds containing them Cun release minuscule amounts of toxic substances. The panel also recommended that the manufacturers disclose the ingredients in dental filling materials and that the information be referred to in each patient s dental records. Medical specialists agree that Mercury poisoning can cause a wide variety of symptoms including arthritis and depression and a variety of neurological and autoimmune disorders. Swedish health Quot officials recently called for a halt to the use of amalgam calling it a toxic and  people get More colds experts say by the los Angeles times go ahead wander around with wet hair a til the cows come Home. Park the bed in a stiff draft. Sit around in Damp socks and eat ice Cream until your Teeth ache. But to avoid a cold pass up that Blowout with the Boss. The cold War that is the common cold War is alive and Well. And the latest dispatch May Surprise no one but the experts psychological stress researchers say is a associated. With an increased risk of acute respiratory  got that stressed out people get colds. That disclosure in thursdays new England journal of Medicine supports the Contention that emotional states affect physical health. Specifically the report suggests that stress can undermine ones defences against infectious diseases. Common cold czars said the study offers the first persuasive evidence of the link. The study involved 420 men an women enrolled As subjects at the world famous common cold unit in Salisbur England. They underwent medic exams gave blood samples and con plated questionnaires about behave ii psychological stress personality an health habits. Then 394 of them received nose drop laced with one of five viruses known t cause a colds familiar symptoms. The other 26 subjects a comparison grou got drops containing an innocuous Salin solution. All were then quarantined an checked daily for the telltale signs c postnasal drip stuffiness Runny Eye several weeks later they gave a secon blood Sample. Researchers found that people who it ported High stress Levels were twice i Likely to develop a cold As those reporting Low Levels