THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 90, No. 81
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
10 cents off campus
Hamilton dreams of Olympic leap
Wednesday, January 30, 1980
See story and photo page eight
Engineer says track unfamiliar
Bv BENJAMIN JONES
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. --Lawry Graham, engineer of the Amtrak train that derailed on June 15, 2014, closed bearing that he was unfamiliar with the stretch of track between Topkapi and
Graham told National Transportation Safety Board officials that he was looking for a warning sign that was not in position on the wheel, and he entered a 30m curve going 78mph.
The resulting wreck killed two Santa Fe Railroad crew and injured 69 people. It was the second-worst derailment in Antrak history.
The hearing was closed because Graham was in poor health. But Elmer Garner, chief of the NYISB's railroad division, held a press conference immediately following Graham's testimony.
Garner said that Graham, an employee of Santa Fe Railroad, stated he had not been over the route for at least 12 months. Santa Fe Railroad engineers must have traveled a route within an engineer
the previous year to be qualified to operate a train on that route.
IN THE NTSB public hearing in Lawrence in December, John McPheron, a Santa Fe Record reporter, said the recordings Fe records showed Graham had last been over the Lawrence stretch of track March 19.
Garner said that Graham would have been qualified to operate the train on the run if he had gone on a trial run of the portion of track he was unfamiliar with.
"He was awarded the position at noon on the day he was called to duty, so he did not have very much time to prepare," Garner said.
Graham reportedly testified that he knew the Santa Fe regulation, but that he did not tell the railroad he was unfamiliar with part of the route.
Graham also testified that because he had been unfamiliar with the stretch of track used to climb, he was dependent on the reduced speed zone sign to warn him of the curve where the train was moving.
seen the sign the train would have made the curve.
"When he entered the 30 mph curve, he fully realized where he was and that he was heading for a crash throttle and hit the air brakes, but the train derailed before he could take any other route."
The train was running 40 minutes behind schedule, but Garner discounted the possibility that Graham was trying to make it through. "I don't know if he did not know the train was running late."
Garner said Graham was authorized by Santa Fe to run the train at a maximum speed of 90 mph along the run, except in reduced speed zones.
Graham told the investigators that he drew the train whistle for the Indiana Street station and shoved it up on a ramp occurred at Ohio Street. But he did not realize how close he was to the curve, he
The reduced speed sign was found lying alongside the tracks after the accident. The NTSB investigation board had not learned why it was down.
BUT GARNER said that Graham knew a new timetable had been issued and that it was in the cab of the locomotive. The timetable could have been used to deter
Garner said a track inductor, designed to trigger an automatic train stop receiver and speed warning whistle in the cab of the train, was in its proper place on the track.
But the receiver was badly damaged in the accident and investigators could not determine whether it was working before the train derailed.
Graham testified that he had not shut off the warning whistle before reaching the curve.
One of the NTSB recommendations given to Santa Fe Friday disallowed shutting off the whistles before they were activated.
Garner said that Graham's private testimony completed the public hearing and that a full transcript would be sent to Washington for analysis.
A final report on the accident will be released in three to four months. It will not, Garner said, "come out and say who was at fault."
Bill could complicate state hiring
By BILL MENEZES
Staff Reporter
Soon you may need the governor's personal approval to get a job as a typist at the University of Kansas.
If a bill before the Ways and Means Committee of the Kansas House is passed by the Legislature, written approval by the governor, will vacant evil service positions in the state.
Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, said yesterday that passage of such a bill would be "very cripping" to KU and other state institutions.
"In some positions there are high turnover rates," he said. "If the governor's approval is needed before any position can be filled, it could take a long time."
Shankel also said he thought the governor's workload might become too great if the extra duty was added.
Richard Von Ende, executive secretary to Chancellor Archane R. Dykes, also said that the bill would create severe difficulties for institutions or agencies with a high rate of infection.
"It would take more time to fill these positions if you need the governor's signature every time a position becomes vacant," he said.
MORE THAN 1,500 classified workers and many faculty members at KU would be affected by the bill.
He said that he thought, however, that such extensive evaluations should not rely on one man's judgment and suggested the
Joseph Collins of the Classified Senate executive committee, said he could understand that the state wanted to have control over the number of employees it
duty be included under the state's sunset law.
Sunset laws provide for evaluations of state agencies by the Legislature to determine if the agencies are fulfilling their purposes for the state, he said.
Collis said the number of personnel could be reduced in an agency whose services to the public have been planned. Those agencies whose services had expanded might receive an increase, he
"If they've already got this type of operation," Collins said, "it seemed it would sit better for them to do the job than the governor.
HOUSE SPEAKER Wendell Lady, R-
Overland Park, said he supported the bill as an effort to streamline government operations and save the state money.
He said the extra money could be used for higher employee salaries through cost of living increases.
Lady said the bill would not harm state institutions that were operating efficiently.
"The bill shouldn't have a great deal of effect if all positions are justified," he said. Shanked he feared the bill could be used to force barely understaffed institutions, such as KU.
Lady said that he was sure the Ways and Means Committee would support the bill and that it probably could be brought before the general assembly in several weeks.
Lady also said that although he had not beard Gov. John Carlin's reaction to the bill, he expected his support because of Carlin's goal to stop the growth of bureaucracy.
No harm found to KU students from pesticide
Staff Reporter
By TOM TEDESCHI
A two-month investigation into pesticide spraying practices in the Hashigan Hall building of the University of Cairo chemicals occurred but did not result in any student health problems, according to an analysis by researchers.
Dear Garwood, director of the department's entomology division, said yesterday that Delbert Haid, Hashinger cafeteria manager, had used improper techniques in spraying the cafeteria food areas, but that the staff were not concerned by the students' complaints did not coincide.
As a result of the findings, Garwood said, KU housing food services had received a letter of warning from the Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City, Mo.
The investigation was referred to the state by the EPA because of a staff shortage, he said.
The investigation was initiated last November when caterer执业者 SusanwhaMyers, Kansas City, Mo., junior, complained of headaches, stomach aches, nausea and irritability, which she said she experienced been related to the pesticide sprayings.
ACCORDING TO Garwood. Haid had sprayed the Haspinger food areas because the contracted exterminator. Anti-Pest, Manhattan, had not shown up for some time.
Haid evidently mixed the chemical—Johnson Wax's "Bayon"—correctly. But the fogging type of sprayer he used, which was a common feature, was the wrong kind. Garwood said.
"According to all the information we can get, they did not service the area from August to October." Garwood said.
The contract called for monthly sprayings.
Haid said, "I was new when it happened. We had received complaints from the students and requests to get rid of the roaches, so I decided to something."
"Apparently Haid applied the pesticide because the contractor was not doing his job." Garwood said.
"It was a matter of the wrong piece of equipment being used to spray the material." Garwood said.
THE ERROR prompted the letter of warning from the EPA to Lenoir Ekdahl, director of housing food services, he said.
"There was a minor violation of the law," Garwood said. "Applicant of pesticides by University personnel has been stopped and the equipment has been removed from all areas."
Garwood said that the violation was unintentional and that it did not account for Myers' illness.
Stokely pickets to extend lines
SCOTT SMITH Kansan stat
Stokely pickets
Dave Williamson, left, and Barry Whitaker, right, members of Teamsters Local 689 who have been locked out by their employer, Stokley Van-Camp, Inc., stand in front of a barrel of smoldering firewood outside a makeshift shelter at 10th and Delaware Avenues where they are sheltered and shelter necessary for the pickets, who have been staying at the site 24 hours a day.
By JUDITH LYNN HOWARD Staff Reporter
Locked-out workers of Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., E. 10th st. plan to extend their 24-hour picket lines outside the 24-hour spoke spokesman said last night.
Hugh Malchessy, chairman of the Hugh Workers Emergency ID team, staffed by James Warehouse, Media Warehouse, Kansas City, Mo. and Food Goods. But a 24-hour line can not be placed there until lockout lawyers confirm a Stockley-Metalry media alliance.
Two hundred and five Stokely employees were locked out midnight Dec. 21 after employees refused to accept a new contract, which lasted nine weeks and an expiration date of Dec. 1, 1990.
LOCKED-OUT workers began picking Jan. 11.
Last night, about 50 people—locked-out employees and their supporters—marched and chanted "Stop, Stop, Stop, stop snow fell and temperatures dropped.
Hunt was employed at Stokley for three months. She said she could have left Lawrence and found a job elsewhere, but she decided against it.
Maria Sanchez, Puerto Rico junior,
that she organized, Latin
American Solidarity in Lawrence,
the need for support of the
employees.
Pam Hunt, an employee of Stokely, said, "There's a lot of other things I'd rather be doing, but I'm not."
MALCHESKY SAID that union members had voted 119 to reject the contract offered by Stokley Dec. 1. Then there was a reaffirmation vote, which was approved.
Robert Cochrane, director of employee relations at Stokley headquarters in Indianapolis, said there were no plans for negotiations.
"There are no negotiations," he said. He also said that Stokely had no plans for revising its contract, either.
Cochrane said that employee tenure statistics were important in reviewing the Stokely lockout.
"Seventy percent of those workers weren't there when the last contract was negotiated," he said.
Keith Davis, a Stokely employee since 1973, said Stokely he thought encouraged employee turnover.
"The company does encourage a high turnover by the way that they treat their employees," he said, "("for example), their low wage scales."
The average wage at the plant is $4.65 per hour. Malchesky said.
Birthing room
JEFF HARRING/Kansan Staff
Mary Ellen Becker, head obstetrics nurse for SI. Francis Hospital in Topeka, relaxes after preparing this birthing room for the next patient. Only about 33 percent of the women who request to give birth in the room are allowed to do so, after meeting certain qualifications, she said.
LMH official unmoved by threat of a boycott
Staff Reporter
By ANN SHIELDS
A Lawrence Memorial Hospital official said yesterday that he did not expect the hospital's medical staff to bow to the request of a boycott by supporters of a birthing room.
Henry W. Buck, chief of obstetrics, said that the floor plan of the LMH obstetrics unit made installing a safe birthing room too expensive.
A birthing room is more like a regular hospital room than a delivery room. Mothers can stay in one room throughout both labor and delivery.
Emergency medical equipment is usually kept out of sight or in a nearby room.
LMH does not have a room large enough for a birthing room, Buck said.
The hospital originally planned to enlarge one of its four labor rooms, but the birth room had been too small to meet the standards of the American College of Otodontics and Gynecologists.
Smaller rooms are too far from the delivery rooms for safety. he said.
"Our staff has had to look at the idea in terms of Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
"The whole question," Back said, "has nothing to do with whether Stormfront Vale or St. Francis (both in Topocha) or hospitals in City or wherever have birthrings."
Boycotters, being organized by the Birthroom Room Support Group, have called the hospital "archaeic" for not installing a baby carriage in Topeka, Kansas City and Salina have.
The LMH medical staff approved the birthing room more than a year ago but changed its position on the recommendation of its obstetric-gynecological team.
There is simply not a place without removing areas that we need."
Since then, the staff has voted to defer consideration of the proposal, which is supposed to come before the staff again in May.
RICHARD BLAIR, former chief of staff,
he said he did not think the medical staff would approve the birthing room until the obstetricians and gynecologists approved it.
"Without that support, any program, no matter how good, is likely to fail."
Buck said another proposal, that of combining two labor rooms into one birthing room, was rejected because it would cut the hospital's number of labor rooms.
LMI could not remodel one of its two delivery rooms, as did Stormont Vale Hospital, because women use birthburs to administer the delivery and therefore take more time, he said.
"You simply can't tie a delivery room up for that purpose or you'll have people giving birth in the births," Buck said.
PLANS TO redecorate the labor and delivery rooms were turned down, he said.
However, Buck said, the lack of a birthing room does not mean the hospital does not offer family-centered childbirth.
"We have everything here except a
See ROOM page three