An author from Chicago is writing a book about the passengers who survived the crash of Flight 232 in Sioux City. Laurence Gonzales has interviewed over 30 survivors of the crash landing at the Sioux City airport on July 19th in 1989. Gonzales says he was inspired to write the book after reading the story of Jerry Schemmel, a crash survivor who rescued a baby from the wreckage of the plane.

“And as I read his story I thought my goodness a 184 people survived this and there’s dozens of them still out there. And some of them were kids at the time of the flight and are now grown up adults and they must have amazing stories to tell,” Gonzales says. “Just as soon as I started talking to people I found out how amazing those stories really are.” Gonzales has previously written the best seller “Deep Survival” and has a sequel to that book coming out this fall.

“Deep Survival is about why some people survive and others don’t, and how we make mistakes, what goes on in our brain when we’re making mistakes that get us into trouble,” he explains. “The new book in September ‘Surviving Survival’ is about what happens when the surviving event is over. You’ve gone through the traumatic event, you’ve live through it, and now how do you get back to your life.” Gonzales says the Flight 232 book will chronicle how the survivors have dealt with the plane crash and gone on with their lives. Gonzales hopes to finish the book in the next year in time to publish it around the 25th anniversary of the crash in 2014.

(Radio Iowa)

We’re supposed to stop at red lights, but some motorists ignore the law and blast right through, risking at least a ticket, and at most, killing someone. This is National Stop On Red Week.

Melissa Wandall, outreach director for the National Coalition for Safer Roads, is urging Iowans to become more aware of the deadly risks. “The goals for National Stop On Red Week are to educate, encourage and empower the motorists on our highways to make better decisions when stopping on red,” Wandall says. “We want to make sure that’s what they’re doing. So many people unfortunately have forgotten that we have laws in place to keep us all safe.”

A federal study of Iowa crashes in 2009 found intersection-related crashes claimed 87 lives. Nationwide, that same year, 87-hundred people were killed in such wrecks at intersections. While some drivers make a conscious choice to run a light because they’re running late, others might not realize they’re blowing through a stoplight because of their cell phone, G-P-S or something else.”It has more to do with distractions than it has to do with people just not stopping on red,” Wandall says. “It doesn’t just have to be a gadget. You can be distracted in your mind, with your kids in the car, with your radio, it’s thinking about something else other than the fact of where you’re going.”

Wandall’s husband, Mark, was killed by a red-light runner two weeks before their daughter was born. Wandall has since become a leading voice for intersection safety. She helped spark passage of Florida’s “Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act,” which expanded the use of life-saving red light camera technology. She’s been telling her story for eight years now. “I’ve actually have had people who’ve come to me and said, ‘I’ve always ran lights. I didn’t care and I never got caught and I never hurt anybody else but after hearing your story, it really made me think I have to change my behavior because I might just take some innocent child’s life or I might take a dad out of some family’s life.'”

The study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found red-light running is the leading cause of urban crashes, while more than two-point-three million drivers received a red-light citation last year. Learn about this week’s campaign at: www.StopOnRedWeek.com

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Two bicyclists have reported being shot at along a state highway northwest of Sioux City. Authorities say Tony Pierce and John Pecaut told deputies they were riding along Iowa Highway 12 a couple miles north of Stone State Park when the incident occurred Sunday morning. Pierce and Pecaut say a vehicle slowed as it neared them and someone inside it started shooting above their heads. The men took cover in a ditch.  A suspect vehicle was stopped about four miles north, and two men were arrested after a brief foot chase.

Twenty-two-year-old Terry Oliver Jr. faces a charge of attempted murder. Twenty-year-old Cesar Gonzalez is charged with being a material witness.
A Plymouth County jailer said both remained in custody on Monday.