HUMPTULIPS – Washington state seismologist Anthony Qamar was one of two men killed in a log truck accident on winding U.S. 101 north of Hoquiam, officials said.
Qamar, 62, research associate professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, died in the crash along with Daniel Johnson, 46, a former University of Puget Sound geophysics researcher, UW seismology spokesman Bill Steele said.
Qamar and Johnson were on their way to the Olympic Peninsula to collect instruments and data concerning a “slow-slip” quake that recently occurred off the coast, Steele said.
The scenic highway between Hoquiam and Humptulips on the western Olympic Peninsula was closed in both directions for about 81/2 hours after the crash.
State Patrol investigators wrote that because of an apparent equipment failure, logs fell off a trailer being pulled by a northbound 1992 Kenworth truck.
Johnson, who was driving, went off the road to try to avoid the hazard but the car was still hit by some of the logs and shoved into timber and brush. Johnson and Qamar were pronounced dead at the scene.
The truck was totaled but the driver, Garland Eugene Massingham, 40, of Centralia escaped injury.
Associated Press
Yakima: State ends safety probe at hospital
The state Department of Health has ended its investigation into safety issues at Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center.
A progress report by the hospital shows that it has corrected many of the concerns uncovered in a June probe into allegations of patient-safety problems, said Byron Plan, executive manager of the state’s Office of Health Care Survey.
“The problems identified are no longer problems,” Plan said.
The probe, which resulted in 16 citations against the hospital, was started after all eight of the hospital’s emergency room physicians quit, citing patient-safety concerns. A group that represents many of the doctors who practice at the city’s two hospitals later announced a vote of no-confidence against Yakima Regional’s chief executive officer, Tim Trottier.
Yakima Regional, formerly nonprofit, was purchased two years ago by Health Management Associates and changed to a for-profit hospital. Trottier had said the complaints stemmed from a financial dispute between the hospital and the physicians.
Health Management Associates transferred Trottier to a different HMA hospital in Mississippi last Friday. His replacement has not yet arrived in Yakima, and no one from Regional’s administration was available to comment on the conclusion of the investigation Monday.
Associated Press
Idaho: Illegal workers at base arrested
Federal immigration officials have arrested seven undocumented workers at the Mountain Home Air Force Base on immigration charges.
The men – six from Mexico and one from Canada – were arrested Tuesday. They were building housing on the air base for Nutek Construction, a Brisbane, Calif.-based subcontractor of Parsons Evergreene LLC. Parsons Evergreene, based in Salt Lake City, has construction contracts at several military bases, officials said, and was not a part of this investigation.
Carl Rusnok, a Dallas-based regional spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said his agency began investigating after officials with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations contacted ICE with suspicions about the workers.
The men will appear before a federal immigration judge who will decide if they should be deported, he said.
Associated Press
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