Security & Safety Briefs - Dec. 22 - Dec. 28

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The Latest Headlines:

• Highway Watch Conducts Mock Attack Exercise
• Pa. Officials Investigating I-70 Bypass Collapse
• House Democrats' Report Critical of DHS

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Highway Watch Conducts Mock Attack Exercise

Department of Homeland Security personnel, trucking and other transportation industry executives have concluded the second Highway Watch disaster planning and response exercise, American Trucking Associations said.

The exercise simulated four terrorist attack scenarios in truck transportation operations.

In the mock attacks, terrorists detonated a water truck converted into a bomb, simultaneously attacked three tanker trucks at strategic locations, detonated a car bomb aboard an automobile transporter at the U.S./Canadian border and detonated another bomb planted in an intermodal container while onboard a train.

This exercise, conducted in cooperation with Mississippi State University Dec. 13-15 in Alexandria, Va., and Canton, Miss., was one of three exercises in the program year ending in March 2006, ATA said. Transport Topics

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Pa. Officials Investigating I-70 Bypass Collapse

Pennsylvania officials were investigating the collapse of a 125-ton concrete overpass onto Interstate 70 in Pennsylvania, and said a three-mile stretch of the highway would remain closed at least through Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials said the bridge, which fell Tuesday evening, was last inspected in detail in March 2004, though it was visually inspected again in August.

Bridges must be inspected every two years, Jeff Breen, PennDOT's maintenance chief in Washington County, Pa., told AP.

Investigators are looking into overweight truck traffic on the bridge, or mine subsidence beneath it, as possible causes and are trying to determine whether concrete supports may have been struck by vehicles, AP said.

One minivan hit the fallen debris and several people sustained minor injuries, which could have been worse, officials said. Transport Topics

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House Democrats' Report Critical of DHS

A group of House Democrats released a report Tuesday critical of Department of Homeland Security, including port and transportation security, the Associated Press reported.

According to the report, DHS has failed to compile a single, comprehensive list prioritizing protections for the nation's most critical and potentially vulnerable buildings, transportation systems and other infrastructure, install monitors at borders, seaports and airports and other high-risk security concerns.

Last week, DHS Michael Chertoff said the department will have finished the entry portion of its system to track foreigners — the US-VISIT program — by the end of the year at 115 airports, 14 seaports and 150 land crossings into the country, AP reported. Transport Topics

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