NEWSQUIRKS

Success Breeds Failure

Red-light cameras, which many motorists insist are aimed at enhancing revenue rather than safety, have reduced the number of tickets issued in Chicago suburbs so successfully that jurisdictions which counted on the fines in their budgets are experiencing significant shortfalls. Libertyville, Ill., for instance, projected net revenues from red-light violations at $462,000 this fiscal year, but after six months, only $32,000 had been taken in. Although municipal officials agree the decreased revenue is manageable if it promotes safer driving, Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorists Association, which opposes red-light cameras, suggested, “It’s not that driver behavior is being modified. It’s just that people avoid those areas.” (Chicago Tribune)

Way to Go

Authorities blamed carbon monoxide for the deaths of five boys, ages 16 to 19, in a motel room in Hialeah, Fla., that they rented for a birthday celebration. Investigators reported that the teens had borrowed a friend’s car, but it wouldn’t start and needed a jump. Reluctant to turn off the engine in case they couldn’t start it again, they left the car running in the single-car garage attached to their motel room. The cleaning lady who discovered their bodies the next afternoon said the smell of gasoline filled the room. (The Miami Herald) Fire officials in San Bernadino, Calif., determined that Steven Vego, 44, died after he heard a “pop” and saw a fire in his backyard, then went out to douse it, accidentally stepped on a downed power line and was electrocuted. His wife, Sharon Vego, 43, tried to rescue him but also stepped on the power line and was electrocuted. Their son, Jonathan Cole, 21, tried to rescue his parents but he, too, stepped on the power line and was electrocuted. (Los Angeles’s KABC-TV)

Food Fight

Competing potato chip distributors Richard Stackiewicz, 69, and Raymond Auringer, 56, have sabotaged each other’s chips for the past decade at stores they service in Syracuse, N.Y., sometimes crushing each other’s chips, other times slicing open bags. Their rivalry turned physical when Auringer found Stackiewicz on his knees stocking a shelf, jumped on him and began punching. “I’d gone to four stores and spent over an hour just cleaning my racks from him smashing them around,” Auringer said. “Then I walk in the fifth store, and there he is. It’s like God gave me a gift. I just went crazy on him.” (Syracuse’s The Post- Standard)

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.