Nation digest 01/19/05

Feds: Car safety features have saved 329,000 lives

DETROIT -- Seat belts, air bags and other vehicle safety features have saved 329,000 lives since 1960, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. More than half of those lives were saved by seat belts, the report said. In addition to seat belts and air bags, the report evaluated child safety seats, energy-absorbing steering columns, improved roof and side protection, and shatter-resistant windshields. According to the study, the number of lives saved annually from safety devices increased from 115 per year in 1960 to 25,000 per year in 2002. A total of 32,737 people died in cars and light trucks on U.S. highways in 2002. That was higher than the 28,183 killed in 1960, NHTSA said. But people traveled millions more miles in 2002, so the death rate per miles traveled was lower.

Trial begins for priest at center of abuse scandal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- About 80 prospective jurors were questioned Tuesday for the trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal. Shanley, 73, faces three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. The maximum sentence would be life in prison. Shanley's attorney, Frank Mondano, has made it clear he will argue that Shanley's accuser made up his story of abuse to win a monetary award in a civil lawsuit. Most of the priests accused in civil lawsuits have avoided criminal prosecution because the alleged crimes were committed so long ago that charges were barred by the statute of limitations. But because Shanley moved out of Massachusetts, the clock stopped, allowing prosecutors to arrest him in May 2002 for sexual abuse that allegedly took place between 1979 and 1989.

CDC corrects error in Americans' obesity risks

ATLANTA -- Blaming a computer software error, the government admitted overstating the nation's weight problem in a widely reported study last year that said obesity was about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published last March, said that obesity-related deaths climbed between 1990 and 2000 to 400,000 a year -- an increase of 100,000. In the journal's latest issue, the government ran a correction, saying the increase was 65,000 deaths or so. But the agency said the finding that obesity is a major cause of death still stands.

Wrecked barges restrict shipping on Ohio River

REEDSVILLE, Ohio -- Traffic on a 42-mile stretch of the Ohio River was restricted Tuesday because gates used to control the water level were jammed in the open position by wrecked barges. The barges were keeping the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from closing all eight gates that control the water level between the Belleville lock and the Willow Island lock above Parkersburg, W.Va.

Woman tries handstand on railing, falls to death

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A woman fell to her death while trying to do a handstand on the railing of a second-floor hotel balcony, sheriff's officials said. Molly Jerman, 23, of Cape Coral died Sunday, according to the Lee County sheriff's department. Just before she fell, she had called out to a friend, "Watch to see what I can still do," a police report said.

Tiny temblors rumble in Georgia; no damage

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Three earthquakes near Augusta kept 911 dispatchers busy early Tuesday, but experts say the quakes -- which registered preliminary magnitudes between 2.0 and 2.5 -- were nothing to get shaken up about. The magnitudes were the minimum people can typically feel, said Donald Stevenson, a seismologist for the Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which monitors earthquake activity for the U.S. Department of Energy. "You would just feel a bump in the night," he said.