Security & Safety Briefs - June 16 - June 22
The Latest Headlines:
- HOV Lanes Can Lead to Higher Accident Rates, Study Says
- First Truck Shipment of Radioactive Waste Leaves Ohio
- Congressmen Criticize Border Cameras
- DHS Requiring Digital Photos on Some Visitors' Passports
- First Truck Shipment of Radioactive Waste Leaves Ohio
HOV Lanes Can Lead to Higher Accident Rates, Study Says
High-occupancy vehicle lanes may be leading to more vehicle crashes, as people in adjoining standard lanes move into them and cause wrecks, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.Citing a Texas Transportation Institute study, the Journal said HOV lanes have led to as much as 56% more accidents in parts of Dallas-area freeways.
Without concrete barriers separating HOV from regular lanes, people sometimes move into the higher-speed lanes and cause accidents, the report said.
First Truck Shipment of Radioactive Waste Leaves Ohio
The first of an expected 2,000 shipments of Cold War-era radioactive waste left a former uranium-processing plant near Cincinnati for Texas earlier this month after neighbors fought for years to get rid of the waste and the government struggled to find a place to take it, the Associated Press reported.Two steel canisters, each holding about 20,000 pounds of a mixture of radioactive waste combined with fly ash and concrete, were on the first truck bound for the storage site in Andrews, near the Texas-New Mexico state line, AP said.
The Fernald plant, about 20 miles northwest of Cincinnati, processed purified uranium for use in reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons from the 1950s until 1989, AP reported.
About 85% of the site’s other wastes are to be permanently stored at the Fernald plant, but the more radioactive silo wastes being shipped to Texas are part of the 15% to be sent elsewhere under the cleanup plan, AP said.Transport Topics
Congressmen Criticize Border Cameras
Members of Congress Thursday criticized a $239 million camera system installed on the Canadian and Mexican borders, the Washington Post reported.One House member, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who chairs the Homeland Security subcommittee on management, said the program was mismanaged, the Post reported.
The paper cited a General Services Administration deputy inspector general’s report that said GSA and the Border Patrol helped cause problems with the so-called integrated surveillance intelligence system, the paper said.
Many of the cameras, which are posted on 50- to 80-foot poles, have broken down repeatedly and had poor wiring, it said. Transport Topics
DHS Requiring Digital Photos on Some Visitors' Passports
The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that nationals of some countries will be required to produce passports with digital photographs by Oct. 26.By that date all so-called Visa Waiver Program countries must also present an acceptable plan to begin issuing integrated circuit chips, or e-passports, within a year, DHS said.
“The electronic passport is the path to secure and streamlined travel among Visa Waiver Program countries,” said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The 27 countries participating in the program include the United Kingdom and many European countries as well as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Transport Topics
