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© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2002
WASHINGTON -- More than 500 people were killed in airplane crashes last year, half of them aboard the four planes hijacked Sept. 11, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Friday.
Overall, transportation fatalities rose slightly in 2001 compared with 2000, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the safety board and the Transportation Department.
Highway, railroad, aviation, maritime and pipeline accidents killed 44,461 people last year, up 0.6 percent from 44,196 in 2000, the safety board said.
The biggest increase was in aviation, where 531 people were killed in accidents involving commercial planes last year, up from 92 the year before, the safety board said. The number of airline fatalities was the highest since 1977, when 582 people were killed when two Boeing 747s collided on a Canary Islands runway.
On Sept. 11, 265 passengers and crew members were killed when terrorists hijacked four jets and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Another 265 people were killed two months later when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from Kennedy Airport in New York. Safety board investigators have found no evidence of terrorism.
Health insurers would be required to cover regular colon cancer screenings for people who are over 50 or are at high risk for the disease under a bill approved by a Senate committee Wednesday.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee recommended the bill by a 16-5 vote after a lengthy debate.
Some Republicans had argued that the proposal amounted to a federal mandate that would drive up health costs, which are already escalating.
They also feared it would open the door to mandating that insurers cover other health screenings.
The Bush administration has discussed reducing the government's role in a Clinton-era program spelling out state cleanup plans for thousands of lakes and rivers, an official said Saturday.
A federal regulation from mid 2000, since put on hold, requires states to develop detailed plans to reduce pollution in more than 20,000 lakes, rivers, streams and bays that do not meet minimum federal water quality standards.
Christie Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was briefed this month on a proposal to give states more control over the program, agency spokesman Joe Martyak said.