ODDLY ENOugh

ODDLY ENOugh

Teens’ car plunges into icy pool during drive

UXBRIDGE, Mass.

Twin sisters ended up taking an icy plunge on their way to school, when their Lexus veered off the road and into a backyard swimming pool.

Police say the 17-year-old girls were headed to Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Uxbridge, Mass., on Wednesday when the car crashed into a utility pole. It then crashed into a fence and went into the shallow end of the pool.

The airbags deployed, and the girls were able to climb out of the sunroof.

Homeowner Muhamed Alomar says he helped the girls get out of the car and brought them into his house to warm up.

The girls refused medical treatment. Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Pa. mayor accused of disturbing graves

SHAMOKIN, Pa.

A central Pennsylvania mayor has been accused by authorities of disturbing 14 graves through work on a cellphone tower planned for the cemetery where he serves as board president.

Police charged Shamokin Mayor Bill Milbrand with vandalism over the plan to build the cellphone tower over the graves. He has denied the charges and said he had little involvement in the project, which would have generated money for cemetery upkeep.

Some of the 16,000 graves at Shamokin Cemetery date to 1919.

Milbrand told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he could not discuss the situation until he met with a lawyer. He was arrested and handcuffed Tuesday at his tour bus company.

Police accused him of letting construction crews cover more than a dozen graves with dirt in order to place the cell tower at the back of the cemetery. Milbrand hoped it could generate $900 to $1,200 a month.

“If it is proven that graves were disturbed, with my own money I will see that it gets righted,” Milbrand told the Daily Item of Sunbury.

The arrest followed a complaint from local resident Thomas Ward. According to court papers, Shamokin Patrolman William Miner used burial records and photographic evidence to determine that 14 graves had been disturbed and spoke with a contractor who said he had done work there at Milbrand’s direction. Other residents complained that rocks and rubble had fallen onto graves.

Associated Press