Friday Five: Superhighways, broken signs, and the Denmark sex industry
An SUV is extracted from a parking lot elevator shaft, after plunging down it on Tuesday. (via AMNY)
July 20, 2012 — On Tuesday, a luxury SUV plunged 40 feet into an elevator shaft at an Upper East Side parking garage. The 4,500 pound vehicle fell five stories in the accident which is still being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Possibilities include malfunctions with the elevator, problems with the car, or human error. Two workers were injured, including the one driving driving the car when it fell and another who was inside the elevator on the ground floor. Neither one’s injuries seem life-threatening.
While OSHA is investigating the accident, the Garage Attendants Union President Fred Alston maintains it was just a freak accident. Alston says, “They know what they’re doing up there. It’s not a game [to] them.”
Copenhagen’s biking highways are improving commutes for daily riders. (via Taipei Times)
Denmark has opened a bicycle superhighway in and around its capital Copenhagen to increase bike traffic and provide safer and better-maintained roads for those choosing the healthy and environmentally-friendly form of alternative transportation. The first of 26 planned routes stretches 11 miles, from a nearby subway to the center of the city.
Biking has been growing in Copenhagen, and the city has been looking to further the commuting alternative. The new bike paths are better paved, better lit, and keep cyclists away from heavily trafficked roads.
Danish statisticians have found that 3.5 pounds of COs and 9 cents in health care costs are saved for every six miles of cycling. This is nothing compared to the happiness and personal well-being that bicycle commuting provides. The highway is already fitted with footrests and stopping points as well as time traffic light technology, which is only expected to improve in the future.
A New Zealand road sign much like the one prositutes are damaging by performing stunts with them. (via TNT Magazine)
When New Zealand decriminalized prostitution in 2003, it became one of the most liberal countries with sex trade laws. Since then the industry there has flourished, but the government is dealing with unexpected costs associated with the sex workers. Busy streets often have dozens of workers attempting to attract clients by any means possible. Quite often they use traffic sign poles to attempt stunts. Heavy unintended use of the poles are causing them to bend or break, with more than 40 poles damaged in the past year and half alone. Replacement signs and maintenance can get quite expensive, in addition to the industry’s effect on local businesses, which report higher theft rates.
Now, campaigners are pushing Parliament for the right to ban prostitution on the city’s most popular and busiest streets. The ban would only affect a sex worker’s right to that profession on specific streets, and may help defray some of the costs associated with prostitution.
A sign designed to keep employees safe on the job, after one lost three fingers in a factory accident. (Via MySafetySign)
A 44-year-old employee lost three fingers in an accident with a punch press at Cadorath Plating Co. Ltd. located in Winnipeg, Canada. The man accidently activated the top plate and it pressed into his fingers, severely injuring him and resulting in their removal.
The Family Services and Labour Department of Canada states that Cadorath Plating failed to install the proper safe guards intended to prevent these types of injuries. The company is being fined $60,050, after pleading guilty to failing to ensure worker safety. Employers are responsible for taking all the necessary precautions to prevent injury, including properly training employees in safety regulations.
A Wal-Mart scooter like the one Thomas J. Phillip drunkenly drove out of a store in Louisiana.
Wal-Mart provides disabled shoppers with scooters to do their shopping in comfort. Unfortunately, sometimes the privileges are taken advantage of like in the case of Thomas J. Phillip, a Houma Louisiana native. After a drunken trip to Wal-Mart with a friend, he decided to take one of the electric scooters for a joyride, pulling a wheelchair with his companion in it behind him.
Police responded to reports and arrested Phillip for driving while intoxicated and for theft. His friend was not charged.
– K. Howitt
