Human Error

NORTHEAST GLENDALE ? Fire season is officially upon the Greater Glendale area, and with it, regional firefighting agencies are gearing up in more ways than one. The last group of firefighters from all 11 agencies in the Area C Unified Response division went through an update class Thursday at the Glendale Civic Auditorium on communication and assessment techniques for fighting wildfires. At the same, Glendale Fire officials have already begun patrolling neighborhoods adjacent to wild lands to make sure homeowners have complied with brush clearance notices at a time when the Southland has already seen a smattering of small brush fires.

GLENDALE — Motorists in Glendale were ranked for the third year in row as having some of the worst driving skills in the nation, according to independent insurance report. Glendale ranked 191 out of 193 cities for having the worst drivers in the latest "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report," coming in below that of cities with populations of more than a million. Only Baltimore and Washington D.C. ranked lower. "The No. 1 cause of accidents is human error," said Allstate spokesman Jim Klapthor.

CITY HALL — All Design Review Board members are now on the fast track to removal after the City Council on Tuesday voted to reconstitute the two boards as a way to cement impending change to the design review process. While the council said many of the board members would be reappointed, a handful would surely not in the face of mounting pressure from homeowner groups concerning at least three members between the two boards. Reconstituting the boards as quickly as possible was billed as the only way to maintain the integrity of myriad changes to the design review process for all single-family homes that the City Council on Tuesday instructed city planners to include in a draft ordinance.

GLENDALE — Elected officials at all levels responded to the Chatsworth Metrolink disaster this week with calls for railway control systems that would automatically override train engineers who miss stop signals. The response came as federal investigators confirmed that the Metrolink 111, track and mechanical systems were all working properly at the time of the collision with a Union Pacific freighter on Friday that killed 25 and injured 135 others. Findings also confirmed earlier assessments that human error likely caused the crash, as they determined “with confidence” that the yellow warning and red stop signals appeared to be working at the time.

They interest almost no one, really, except those who live there or have a parent there — or have some part of that multibillion-dollar investment at the top of Mt. Wilson. The darling deer care, as do the mountain lions, now that their food, what’s being called “the fuel,” is up in smoke. The Station fire in the Crescenta-Cañada Valley started up in eerie competition with another “elite fire” blazing away in Rancho Palos Verdes. It made a brief appearance on the CNN Airport Edition just as I boarded my flight from Boston to LAX, and my mom, waiting for me at our family’s La Crescenta home of 42 years, was eager to get out for some good old-fashioned fire-gawking and to get better information than the TV had to offer.

If city wants to save trees, then it can pay I have followed the tree trimming issue and I?m sorry that this well-intentioned ordinance has taken a bad direction (?City looks to close tree fine issues,? Thursday). I do agree that the imposition of huge fines should have been reviewed by senior staff members before they were imposed. Since it appears that the city may have difficulty with the explanation or enforcement of this ordinance, I would simply suggest that all Glendale residents refrain from the trimming or removal of any trees on their property.

The nationwide recall of pet food has kept animal doctors busy, including a local La Crescenta veterinarian who has been testing several animals for kidney failure resulting from the tainted food. One dog that was brought into his office has died from the contaminated product. "We had one dog who was relatively young diagnosed with acute kidney failure," said Dr. James Speas from the Crescenta Cañada Pet Hospital in La Crescenta. The dog was transferred to the City of Angels pet hospital for a form of dialysis.