Diesel

Ask patients in some area hospitals which caregivers they most look forward to seeing, and they'll say the ones with hairy faces and bad breath. For Sean Harris, they were his dogs Diesel and Wilson. For Michael Friedman, it was the family pooch, Larissa. "My mother and grandfather had been [at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital] before and we brought the dog to visit, so when my father got sick, we knew we could bring her," Brad Friedman said of Larissa, a friendly 5-year-old Australian shepherd.

A tractor trailer driver was killed after his or her truck crashed into a barrier along Interstate 95 North, at the exit for Interstate 395 North in Baltimore, and burst into flames, according to Baltimore fire officials. Just before 11 p.m., a tractor trailer carrying lumber north on Interstate 95 appeared to have struck a barrier wall separating the highway and the northbound exit lanes for Interstate 395, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire spokesman. The collision caused two "saddle tanks" carrying diesel fuel on the underside of the truck to rupture, and the fuel to burst into flames, which engulfed the truck's cabin, Cartwright said.

After a dreadful first half against the Arizona Cardinals, the Ravens needed an accelerant on offense. In addition to the play of wide receiver Anquan Boldin and running back Ray Rice, the unit got a sizable pick-me-up from tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta. “Diesel” is the Ravens' two tight-end set. From that alignment, Dickson and Pitta provide additional pass protection or run blocking, or they can run seam routes and flares to give quarterback Joe Flacco more options.

A combination of diesel fuel and sugar from an overturned tractor trailer closed the I-95 north ramp onto Route 100 west in Laurel early Thursday. Crews from the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services responded to the accident just after midnight. The truck was carrying 40,000 pounds of sugar and was leaking 60 gallons of diesel fuel. The services' special operations unit, which conducts hazardous materials mitigation, worked with Maryland Department of Environment and State Highway Administration to clear the scene and minimize the impact of the spill.

Wartsila Diesel Inc., a European diesel maker with its North and Central American headquarters in Annapolis, has signed two contracts to build a $12 million expansion of a power plant in the Dominican Republic and a $43 million expansion of an electricity plant in El Salvador.The diesel engines for the power plants will be built in Finland, but the projects will be overseen by Wartsila's Annapolis office, which has about 80 workers involved in management, sales, finance, engineering and design, said Wendy Yannes, a spokeswoman for Wartsila.

Five to 8 gallons of diesel fuel drained into Columbia's Lake Kittamaqundi on Friday after a spill at a nearby construction site, an official with the builder said yesterday. Construction workers and Columbia Association employees put out buoys to contain the spill, said Don Guglio, senior project manager with Clark Realty Builders of Bethesda. Ice on the lake also helped keep the fuel from spreading, Columbia Association President Maggie J. Brown said. The association owns the 27-acre lake.

DETROIT -- Delphi Automotive Systems Corp., the world's largest auto parts maker, said yesterday that it will buy TRW Inc.'s diesel fuel-injector business for $871 million to grab a piece of Europe's fast-growing market for diesel engines.TRW acquired the unit this year in its $6.53 billion purchase of United Kingdom-based LucasVarity PLC, and the sale will help TRW pare debt. The unit had sales of $1.1 billion last year.The purchase furthers Delphi's goal of adding customers other than former parent General Motors Corp.

THE NATION should breathe easier now that the federal government has finally decided to crack down on air pollution from diesel trucks and buses. The dirty smoke belching from those large vehicles has been evident for years, even as the government continued to tighten tailpipe emissions from automobiles. New rules announced by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday would slash heavy-duty diesel pollutants by more than 90 percent over 10 years, reducing smog and soot that raise the toll of cancer and asthma.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday announced a regulation that within a decade would cut 90 percent of the harmful pollution from construction equipment, farm equipment and other off-road diesel engines and 99 percent of the sulfur from the fuel they use. "It's a big moment in terms of clean air history," Environmental Protection Agency administrator Mike Leavitt said. "That black puff of diesel smoke will be a thing of the past." The regulation is expected to prevent 12,000 premature deaths, 15,000 heart attacks and 6,000 asthma-related emergency room visits for children every year, according to the EPA. Even many of the administration's usual critics praised the regulation, which is expected to be signed today, as the best thing President Bush has done for the environment.

Forty percent of the heavy diesel trucks tested so far in Maryland's new voluntary emissions-control program flunked, spewing smoke dirtier than an industry-recommended standard.But state Department of the Environment officials greeted the news cheerfully yesterday.That failure rate is very close to what they expected when the program for heavy-duty rigs began seven weeks ago, officials said at a press conference in West Friendship, held at a truck weigh station on Interstate 70.The 18-month, penalty-free "pilot program," they said, is supposed to encourage the owners of soot-belching vehicles to tune up their engines and clean up the air. The $160,000 effort is also intended to help the state decide in 1995 whether a mandatory testing program for heavy-duty trucks, defined as those weighing more than 8,500 pounds, is needed.

Ask patients in some area hospitals which caregivers they most look forward to seeing, and they'll say the ones with hairy faces and bad breath. For Sean Harris, they were his dogs Diesel and Wilson. For Michael Friedman, it was the family pooch, Larissa. "My mother and grandfather had been [at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital] before and we brought the dog to visit, so when my father got sick, we knew we could bring her," Brad Friedman said of Larissa, a friendly 5-year-old Australian shepherd.

Crews from the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Maryland Department of the Environment worked most of Wednesday morning responding to a 2,000-gallon fuel spill from a train in South Baltimore. Fire officials said the train's fuel tank ruptured about 9:30 a.m. on the tracks along Fort Armistead Road. The spill is confined to the track area and no injuries have occurred, though it has disrupted rail traffic in the area. Officials have yet to determine what caused the rupture.

Chuck Pagano has spent all week planning how to pound Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, slow down wide receiver Mike Wallace and limit Rashard Mendenhall to less than 50 rushing yards against the Ravens for a fourth straight game. But the Ravens defensive coordinator said Thursday he's glad he doesn't have to find a way to contain a pair of athletic, pass-catching tight ends like Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta. That problem belongs to Steelers defensive guru Dick LeBeau.

After a dreadful first half against the Arizona Cardinals, the Ravens needed an accelerant on offense. In addition to the play of wide receiver Anquan Boldin and running back Ray Rice, the unit got a sizable pick-me-up from tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta. “Diesel” is the Ravens' two tight-end set. From that alignment, Dickson and Pitta provide additional pass protection or run blocking, or they can run seam routes and flares to give quarterback Joe Flacco more options.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible Cockeysville Happy Hollow Road, 12200 block, between 12:30 and 5:06 p.m., Oct. 3. Cash stolen. Side door kicked in. Wedslow Road, unit block, between 4:45 and 8 p.m., Oct. 3. Jewelry stolen and bedroom ransacked. Brick used to break rear door glass. Timonium Abbey Bridge Court, unit block, between 3:50 and 4 p.m., Oct. 3. Laptop and prescription medicine stolen.

This is a story about a problem that we can solve — with a bit of help from Congress. Fifteen years ago, there was no such thing as clean diesel. City transit riders held their breath when the bus pulled away from the curb, and parents worried about their children being exposed to plumes of black smoke from the tailpipes of old school buses. Diesel trucks brought us the goods we wanted, but with a side dish of pollution. Today, new diesel buses, trucks and other engines are more than 90 percent cleaner.

Two Baltimore men escaped injury yesterday morning when the dump truck they were in spun out of control in Oakland Mills, causing leaks of hydraulic fluid and diesel fuel, county fire officials said.Richard Eidinger, 50, of the 2400 block of Fleet St., and Dave Scott, 32, of the 1800 block of Ashburton St., were treated and released at Howard County General Hospital, a hospital spokesman said.Their dump truck, which was towing an air compressor, spun out of control about 9:30 a.m. on state Route 175 near Thunder Hill Road, said Battalion Chief Donald R. Howell, a county Fire Department spokesman.

Vin Diesel is talking about George W. Bush. "He should change his name to George W. Diesel. He's gotten tough," the Diesel named Vin was saying. "When you put the pride of America at stake, you can push just about any agenda. But the president could have learned a few things if he'd been a bouncer at New York bars, like me. "I learned that you can calm the situation with a verbal tone and a demeanor. The best acting I've done was in calming rough situations when there were two of us against 10 at the door of a bar. They'll back off."

President Barack Obama last week signed into law Congress' reauthorization of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2010. The act, known as DERA, is a much welcomed and needed gift for states, communities and businesses that have been investing in clean diesel jobs and technology. DERA was created in 2005 to reduce emissions from the estimated 15 million-plus diesel engines in use today. Over the last five years, this program has provided funds to every state to clean up toxic diesel pollution.

Edward Jonas, a retired diesel mechanic and World War II Navy veteran, died Jan. 4 of respiratory failure at his Auburn, Calif., home. He was 87. Mr. Jonas was born and raised in Richwood, W.Va., where he attended high school. He enlisted in the Navy in January 1941 and during his wartime career served on three ships — and survived the sinking of two of them. Mr. Jonas was assigned to the powder magazine of the cruiser USS Quincy, which sank in August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island in the Pacific.