Safety Harness

THE CALL came to Intrepid's hot line last week from a commuter named Brandon: "I was wondering when the law for the mandatory seat belt goes into effect?" he asked your wheelster.Well, Brandon, welcome home. You obviously have been living in a foreign country since the General Assembly made it mandatory to wear seat belts about five years ago. What's new is the status of the requirement: Effective Oct. 1, failure to wear a seat belt amounts to a "primary" traffic offense.That means a driver may be stopped simply for not wearing a safety harness belt -- and fined $25.The legislature tightened the seat belt law in March, making Maryland the 12th state to adopt a stricter law, which some in the Assembly predict will save 50 lives and $138 million in accident-related costs next year.

For those venturing out on the first day of firearm hunting season Sunday, where you shoot from is as important to safety as the weapons of choice. According to George F. Johnson IV, superintendent colonel for the Department of Natural Resources, "tree-stand incidents account for most hunting accidents. " Johnson and others suggest hunters use a full-body safety harness to keep them tethered to the tree. Broken or worn equipment should be replaced or fixed before hunters climb into the stand.

A Pasadena man died and a second man was missing yesterday after a high-performance racing boat capsized in the Chesapeake Bay about three miles east of Gibson Island, authorities said. A witness told authorities that the men were traveling in the 40-foot Tomahawk jet-drive craft at a high speed near the Craig Island Channel about 2:30 p.m. when it became airborne and flipped, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources. Maryland Natural Resources Police, the Coast Guard, a dive team from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and a police helicopter responded and began a search.

A Pasadena man died and a second man was missing yesterday after a high-performance racing boat capsized in the Chesapeake Bay about three miles east of Gibson Island, authorities said. A witness told authorities that the men were traveling in the 40-foot Tomahawk jet-drive craft at a high speed near the Craig Island Channel about 2:30 p.m. when it became airborne and flipped, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources. Maryland Natural Resources Police, the Coast Guard, a dive team from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and a police helicopter responded and began a search.

A 26-year-old National Guardsman fell 100 feet to his death yesterday after he slipped off a cliff in Ellicott City where he was demonstrating a rock-climbing technique, authorities said.The guardsman lost his balance and fell as he prepared to instruct 10 teen-age members of a Boy Scout Explorers Post from Linthicum in a maneuver called rappelling, said Lt. Michael Gearhart, a Howard County fire and rescue services spokesman.The victim was identified as James Hall of the 500 block of Pine Tree Road in Severna Park.

In the 1970s, an aerospace engineer was perplexed by a cubic foot of electronic wizardry that had to be fitted to a satellite weather station to be launched by the U.S. government. The payload was a late addition to a carefully designed package, and was almost impossible to place so that its antenna would deploy properly.The engineer was Gene Ganssle, the box of electronic wizardry was the beginning of SARSAT, a satellite search and rescue system, and last summer an antenna in orbit picked up a signal that eventually saved the life of Ganssle's son."

For those venturing out on the first day of firearm hunting season Sunday, where you shoot from is as important to safety as the weapons of choice. According to George F. Johnson IV, superintendent colonel for the Department of Natural Resources, "tree-stand incidents account for most hunting accidents. " Johnson and others suggest hunters use a full-body safety harness to keep them tethered to the tree. Broken or worn equipment should be replaced or fixed before hunters climb into the stand.

A Westminster man was killed Saturday, despite efforts to rescue him, when the tree he was helping to trim in Manchester splintered, leaving him suspended about 20 feet aboveground. Sidney Wayne Diehl, 59, of Westminster was helping friends trim the top of a large tree in the 2300 block of Convey Drive about 11:15 a.m. According to the Carroll County sheriff's department, the tree broke apart, causing him to plunge about 10 feet before his safety harness broke his fall. Maj. Phil Kasten, the sheriff's spokesman, said the tree continued to separate as Diehl was hanging about 20 feet in the air. Teams from the Hampstead, Manchester and Pleasant Hill fire companies climbed the tree in an attempt to free him, but he was dead by the time rescuers reached him. Detective Phil Epperson, who is investigating the incident, said Diehl was apparently pinned against the tree.

Maryland Natural Resources Police continued last week to investigate a fatal hunting accident that occurred Sept. 20, on private property near Davidsonville. Joseph Philip Adams, 46, of Glen Burnie was hunting deer from his tree stand, on property in the 2400 block of Rutland Road, when he fell approximately 15 feet to the ground, according to the Natural Resource Police, who said the man was not wearing a safety harness. Adams and a friend were archery hunting from tree stands approximately 80 yards apart when the friend heard Adams call for help.

What do you say about a man who hangs his wife by a rope 300 feet over the Caribbean on their honeymoon?Well, he's either very nasty or a movie director.Fortunately for Geena Davis, her husband is a movie director named Renny Harlin, and that's exactly what he did to her on "Cutthroat Island," the $80-million swashbuckler that's just opened."You have to put the stars in danger," says Harlin, the affable Finnish action mechanic who pulled the same stunts on people he wasn't sleeping with in "Cliffhanger" (Sylvester Stallone)

THE CALL came to Intrepid's hot line last week from a commuter named Brandon: "I was wondering when the law for the mandatory seat belt goes into effect?" he asked your wheelster.Well, Brandon, welcome home. You obviously have been living in a foreign country since the General Assembly made it mandatory to wear seat belts about five years ago. What's new is the status of the requirement: Effective Oct. 1, failure to wear a seat belt amounts to a "primary" traffic offense.That means a driver may be stopped simply for not wearing a safety harness belt -- and fined $25.The legislature tightened the seat belt law in March, making Maryland the 12th state to adopt a stricter law, which some in the Assembly predict will save 50 lives and $138 million in accident-related costs next year.

In the 1970s, an aerospace engineer was perplexed by a cubic foot of electronic wizardry that had to be fitted to a satellite weather station to be launched by the U.S. government. The payload was a late addition to a carefully designed package, and was almost impossible to place so that its antenna would deploy properly.The engineer was Gene Ganssle, the box of electronic wizardry was the beginning of SARSAT, a satellite search and rescue system, and last summer an antenna in orbit picked up a signal that eventually saved the life of Ganssle's son."

A 26-year-old National Guardsman fell 100 feet to his death yesterday after he slipped off a cliff in Ellicott City where he was demonstrating a rock-climbing technique, authorities said.The guardsman lost his balance and fell as he prepared to instruct 10 teen-age members of a Boy Scout Explorers Post from Linthicum in a maneuver called rappelling, said Lt. Michael Gearhart, a Howard County fire and rescue services spokesman.The victim was identified as James Hall of the 500 block of Pine Tree Road in Severna Park.

Status: Day 26, Leg 1Standings:Boat, Nautical miles to finish1. EF Language, 1,336.52. Merit Cup, 1,445.73. Innovation Kvaerner, 1,460.04. Silk Cut, 1,716.35. Chessie Racing, 1,920.96. Toshiba, 2,074.97. America's Challenge, 2,078.68. Swedish Match, 2,184.69. EF Education, 2,330.910. BrunelSunergy, 2,421.5(as of 6: 07 p.m. GMT)Boat beat: The breeze finally kicked in, at least for the front of the fleet, and the leaders are off and racing. With 30 knots of wind and 15-foot waves the "real" race has begun.

Owen Brown Village Board members voted unanimously last month to discontinue a long-standing student scholarship due to lack of interest from village residents.But village officials plan to put the $500 scholarship money in a new Youth Programs Fund, which would be geared toward students who do volunteer work, said Ruth Bohse, village manager.The Community Service Scholarship has been awarded annually since 1982 to a college-level student of any age. Recipients could use the money any way they wanted.