Latest news with #PontiacFirebird
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
1 dead in multi-vehicle crash on I-240 in Asheville
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WSPA) – A man died over the weekend in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 240 in Asheville. The Asheville Police Department identified 41-year-old Zachariah Robert Cosgrove as the victim in the crash near Exit 1B on Saturday, June 7. Investigators said Cosgrove was driving a 2015 Jeep Wrangler in the westbound lanes. Around 2:52 p.m., it was reported that Cosgrove was changing lanes when he collided with a Pontiac Firebird. The crash caused the Jeep to roll over and subsequently collide with a 2018 Ford F-150 traveling in the same direction, according to officers. The F-150 also overturned as a result of the impact. Police said Cosgrove was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash and was ejected from the vehicle when it rolled. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Officers said a passenger in the Jeep was also taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Police did not share the conditions of the other drivers involved in the crash at this time. The crash remains under investigation by the Asheville PD. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Hill
The navigator is blind and the driver's in pain, but they're racing though France, busting barriers
PARIS (AP) — The driver's joints are so painful from rheumatoid arthritis that she can't manage a stick shift. And the co-pilot who is helping to guide her through France as the navigator is blind, her sight snatched away by a brain tumor five years ago that stole her career as a photographer. All the more reason, the two friends figure, for them to proudly show how capable they are by taking part in a women-only cross-country vintage car race from Paris to the Mediterranean. Saint-Tropez, here come Merete Buljo and Tonje Thoresen. 'Making the impossible possible!' is the motto the Norwegian women adopted for their adventure this week. They like to think of themselves as successors — minus the crimes — of 'Thelma & Louise,' the heroines of Ridley Scott's 1991 movie of female emancipation and the joys and perils of the open road. 'That is us!' said Buljo, the driver. For the race, they even hunted for the same car that Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis' characters drove off a cliff. 'When we were looking for a car we thought, 'Oh, a Ford Thunderbird. It would just be perfect!'' Thoresen said. Thoresen is one of two blind navigators in the five-day Princesses Rally that roared off Sunday from Paris. Juliette Lepage, blind from birth, is the other, navigating a 1977 MG. Rallies are long-distance road races, typically with stages and checkpoints. Without sight, Thoresen says her other senses are working overtime on the roads of springtime France: The smells of flowers and vegetation and of farming in the fields; the sharp chill of tunnels they whizz through. And the orchestra of vintage engines — some throaty, others purring — racing down back-country roads. That's music to the ears for petrol-heads like Thoresen, who says she can identify some cars just by their sounds and when they're developing mechanical problems. 'I'm passionate about those sounds. It gives me adrenaline,' she said. Thoresen was incredulous when Buljo proposed that they enter the rally together. 'I said, 'What? But I'm blind!' And she said, 'Yeah. And so what?'' Thoresen recounted. 'She's very much like, 'We can do everything — everything that is impossible is possible to do.'' Unfortunately, the 1990 Pontiac Firebird they planned to drive couldn't keep pace with their ambition. It has an automatic gearbox — easier with the arthritis that Buljo has battled since childhood. 'Because of my legs, I can't drive a normal gearbox. I also have some problems with my hands, so I can't be on the gearbox all the time,' she said. 'For me, driving has always been so very important for my freedom because I always have, more or less, pain in my legs, my knees, my ankles, everything.' But the car broke down a week before the start. They had to fall back on a last-minute modern replacement that's ineligible for the rally, which is open only to cars built between 1946 and 1991. Still, organizers allowed them to come along for the ride, with the competitors, and keep their race name: Team Valkyries, drawn from powerful female figures in Norse mythology. Having secured sponsors and crowd funding, Buljo and Thoresen didn't want their efforts to go to waste. They're using this rally as training, figuring out together how Thoresen can help navigate the route and its checkpoints, even though she can't see it. Participants aren't allowed to use GPS navigational aids and Thoresen hasn't yet learned Braille, which Lepage, the other blind navigator, uses to read and give directions. But Thoresen says she's become as reliable as London's Big Ben at measuring the passage of time, so can advise when it's the right moment to make a turn. And Buljo says she's able to memorize route notes. 'I have an inside map and Tonje has an inside clock, so we make a great team,' she said. Besides, simply getting from Point A to Point B was never their priority. 'We wanted to also show that it's very important to not be ashamed of your handicap,' Thoresen said. 'It's very important to kind of be proud of the competences that you still have and to dare to do stuff.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
One dead, three injured after six-vehicle crash near Nixa
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo. — A crash between six different vehicles killed one person and seriously injured three others on U.S. 160 two miles south of Nixa Thursday night, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP). The MSHP crash report states that a 2015 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was northbound on U.S. 160 at around 8:52 p.m. when it crossed into the opposite lane and struck a southbound 2000 Pontiac Firebird. The collision caused another motorcycle to hit the rear of the Harley-Davidson and skid off the east side of the road, striking a northbound 2014 Toyota Rav-4. The Pontiac skidded across the center of the highway and crashed head-on into a northbound 2019 GMC Sierra. Jury finds Nixa man guilty of killing wife in 2019 A sixth vehicle on southbound U.S. 160 — a 2023 Chevrolet Trailblazer — was also struck by debris from the crash. MSHP says the driver of the Pontiac, a 47-year-old woman from Highlandville, was pronounced dead by the Christian County Sheriff's Office. The driver of the GMC Sierra and the two motorcyclists received serious injuries and were taken to Cox South Hospital in Springfield. No other injuries were reported. This is the 35th fatality in MSHP Troop D in 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Douglassville couple arrested in gas station holdups in Berks and Chester counties
Amity Township police noted several similarities in two robberies of the same Douglassville-area gas station about five weeks apart this spring. Those similarities led to the arrest of a township couple in robberies in Douglassville and Chester County. In the March 19 and April 30 overnight holdups of Speedway, 1028 Benjamin Franklin Highway, the perpetrator was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, dark shoes, black mask and blue rubber gloves. He brandished a silver adjustable wrench in the first robbery. In the second, he told the clerk he had a gun According to court documents: The clerk told police that he was convinced the same person, a short, brown-eyed white man in his early 30s, committed both robberies based on the sound of his voice and his appearance. While the clerk didn't see the suspect get into a vehicle after he left, he heard what sounded like a door shutting around the corner. While investigating the April 30 robbery of Speedway, which occurred about 1:15 p.m., Amity police were notified by state police in Chester County about a holdup of a 7-Eleven/Sunoco store about 10 miles away, at Routes 100 and 23 in South Coventry Township. That robbery was committed by a woman about 45 minutes before the Douglassville holdup. The clerk told troopers that a woman wearing a hooded sweatshirt came in and demanded money from the register. The clerk, who assumed the woman had a gun in the pouch of the sweatshirt, handed her $37 from the register and she left. The clerk lost sight of the suspect as she speed-walked around the corner. Security camera footage shows the robber entering the store with her right hand inside the front pocket of a black hooded sweatshirt. She's also wearing gray shoes with white soles, fitted jeans, a ballcap with a blue brim and blue rubber gloves. Amity detectives joined forces with troopers from the Embreeville station after the April 30 robberies. Investigators pieced together information gleaned from traffic camera recordings of a 1998 Pontiac Firebird that was near the Speedway around the time of the robberies, records of prior police contact with the man and woman associated with the car, and a Facebook post by the man's employer showing him wearing blue rubber gloves. They concluded that Joseph F. Confino, 33, and Angela L. Stuebe, 53, both of the 500 block of Monocacy Hill Road, were involved in robberies in Berks and Chester counties. Amity police Monday charged Confino in the March 19 and April 30 Speedway robberies. Joseph Confino State police at Embreeville on Monday charged Stuebe in the April 30 robbery of the 7-Eleven/Sunoco in South Coventry. Angela Stuebe Confino was charged by state police with robbing the 7-Eleven in South Coventry on April 28, two days before Stueve is alleged to have robbed the same store. According to the probable cause affidavit: Police reviewed traffic camera data that recorded a black 1998 Pontiac Firebird registered to Confino, using a Pottstown address, within a mile of both Speedway robberies within 5 minutes of each holdup. Traffic cameras recorded the same car a few days before the April 30 robberies at a traffic light. The images show a woman in the passenger seat. She's wearing light-colored shoes with white soles, similar to the footwear of the robber of the 7-Eleven in South Coventry on April 30. A query of state police records showed troopers in Chester County stopped Confino on Oct. 29 for driving under a suspended license. He was arrested for drug possession and providing false identification. Booking records from that arrest listed his height as 5 feet 4 inches. Confino's passenger was identified as Angela L. Stuebe of the same Pottstown address. Investigators conducted a state Department of Labor and Industry query for Confino and learned he was employed during the first quarter of this year as a service technician at an oil-change business in Bechtelsville. Troopers noted Confino was pictured in front of the business in a photo on Facebook. There was also a picture of a technician doing an oil change while wearing blue gloves that appeared to be the same type used in the robberies. Amity detectives noted the robber in the March 19 holdup of the Speedway brandished an adjustable wrench that could have been a tool from an auto repair shop. Amity detectives on May 1 conducted surveillance on a residence in the 500 block of Monocacy Hill Road, an address associated with Confino and Stuebe through a recent theft investigation by that department in early April. Detective Shawn O'Rourke noticed a black Pontiac Firebird in the driveway. Police obtained search warrants for the property. On Monday, they took Confio and Stuebe into custody at the residence. Confino was holding a metal pipe used to smoke heroin, and there were bags of the drug in his bedroom. He and Stuebe were wearing the same clothes seen during the robberies. They confessed to the four robberies and said they were together during all of the incidents. Confino was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Monday night before District Judge Kaufman in Reading Central Court. Stuebe was committed to Chester County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail following arraignment before District Judge Mark Lieberman.
CBS News
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
Jay Leno rallies around California State Capitol to push classic car smog exemption law
SACRAMENTO – Legendary late-night talk show host Jay Leno is visiting the California State Capitol on Tuesday to help push a proposed rolling exemption from smog checks for classic cars. A noted car enthusiast, Leno led a rally involving numerous classic cars in front of the Capitol building before the scheduled hearing on SB-712 . Leno drove a classic Pontiac Firebird around the Capitol with state Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) riding shotgun. Grove is the measure's lead sponsor. The proposed bill – which its proponents have taken to calling "Leno's Law" due to his advocacy – would exempt collector vehicles 35 years and older from California's smog check program. Proponents of the exemption argue that these older classic vehicles only make up about 1% of the vehicles on California roads and are rarely the daily driver of commuters. California already doesn't require smog inspections for gas-powered vehicles from model years 1975 and older . The bill is co-sponsored by more than a dozen Republican representatives along with three Democrats. Tuesday's Senate chamber hearing is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. Leno, 74, has a famously large -- more than 100 , but the number seems to fluctuate -- collection of classic vehicles.
