Safety Violations

George Transfer Inc., the Parkton trucking company that federal regulators shut down last month after repeated safety violations, has filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, and a lawyer said the company plans to liquidate what is left of its business.George Transfer and two affiliated companies -- Mack Brothers Inc. and Tri-L Transport Inc. -- filed for court protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code Friday. Companies in Chapter 11 normally continue to operate while they try to craft a plan to pay creditors and stay in business, but attorney Ken Oestereicher said that's not the case this time.

The James Adams II Theatre at Parole was closed before it could open its second production last week after county fire inspectors found a laundry list of violations and that it was operating without proper permits.The fledgling theater operating in space in Parole Plaza once occupied by Rickey's Appliances and Campbell's Auctions has no exit lights, no emergency lights, no fire alarm and no sprinklers, Chief John Scholz, the county's fire department spokesman, said Friday."He was operating in a space that could hold 473 people, and there were a lot of public safety issues," Scholz said.

Baltimore officials yesterday condemned the stable housing more than 50 ponies the city's a-rabs use to sell produce because of code violations and unsafe conditions that threatened the safety of the animals. City officials will meet with the a-rabs at 1 p.m. today to inform them that the ponies must be moved and to discuss possible short- and long-term solutions. A-rabs are produce vendors who sell their wares along city streets from horse-drawn carts - often announcing their presence with shouts.

Weeks before federal trucking regulators ordered Gunthers Transport LLC off the road for being an "imminent hazard" to the public, the owner's son filed the paperwork to create a new entity: Clock Transport LLC. The new trucking company, which shares the Hanover address of Gunthers Transport, was cited for a safety violation last month. One of its trucks failed an inspection in Ohio, which sidelined the vehicle and driver until the problems were fixed. Maryland State Police said Monday that their troopers have been ordered to pull over and inspect trucks bearing either name.

Nearly 70 elderly patients and vulnerable adults must find new homes because of the planned closure of Harborside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, a sprawling facility with numerous fire hazards uncovered in a recent state inspection. The nursing home - the first in Maryland to accept AIDS patients in 1985 - will shut down within the next month after Medicaid and Medicare stop paying for patient care. The federal health care programs decided to cut off funding after a March inspection by the state found more than 30 safety violations, primarily due to structural problems.

WASHINGTON -- CSX Transportation Inc. committed numerous safety violations related to signal and train control, handling of hazardous materials, crew management and maintenance of tracks and bridges, a federal railroad regulator said in a report released yesterday.The Federal Railroad Administration said that based on its observations and employee testimony, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad unit of CSX Corp., "like most [other] big railroads, is characterized in some quarters by an adversarial safety culture."

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. took full responsibility yesterday for two fire safety violations at its Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, agreeing to pay a $50,000 fine imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --Safety violations that went uncorrected cost two coal miners their lives in a fire on a mine conveyer belt in January, a state report has found. The deaths, at the Aracoma Alma No.1 Mine in southern West Virginia, came just two weeks after 12 men were killed in an accident at the Sago Mine in the northern part of the state. Investigators have found that a previous fire at Aracoma Alma No. 1 went unreported and that a fire alarm did not work, a critical wall was missing, a water line had no water in it and an automatic fire sprinkler was broken.

The Bush administration is to announce today policy changes that it says will give the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration more power to crack down on companies that persistently flout workplace safety rules. Under the new policies, OSHA officials will be directed to conduct more follow-up inspections of companies that commit safety violations of "the highest severity," according to a memorandum obtained by The New York Times. Companies that fail to correct violations will in some cases find themselves facing contempt-of-court orders from federal judges to force action.

Kerry L. Ellis, the local businessman convicted of exposing workers to asbestos and of dumping oil and debris into the harbor while scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore, was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison.In sentencing Ellis, U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson harshly criticized the Navy for failing to ensure that shipbreakers such as Ellis adhere to safety and environmental laws while dismantling obsolete warships such as the Coral Sea."There is from my perspective the added complicity of the Navy and its lack of controls in general - a hands-off policy with regard to shipbreaking," Nickerson said.