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Driver targets people, killing one, injuring 13

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 30, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - The driver of a sport utility vehicle plowed across sidewalks and crosswalks throughout the city Tuesday, killing one man and injuring at least 13 people in a series of attacks on pedestrians and motorists, police said.

The man struck people in 12 locations until police surrounded him with squad cars, authorities said.

The spree began around noon in Fremont, where a man walking along the side of the road was hit by an SUV. He was thrown into a field and killed, police Sgt. Chris Mazzone said.

The driver then crossed the bay into San Francisco, where he injured at least 13 people during a 20-minute hit-and-run spree, police said.

The victims were taken to three hospitals. One was in critical condition.

The rampage ended when police arrested the man in the Presidio Heights district. The black SUV was still in the middle of the street an hour later, its front end and windshield smashed in The driver was injured and was hospitalized in stable condition.

Sgt. Neville Gittens, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said terrorism had been ruled out. "The hits were intentional," Gittens said. "There were no regards as to who the suspect was hitting."

State motor vehicle records show the license plate on the SUV registered to Omeed A. Popal of Fremont. The Associated Press, citing an aide to Mayor Gavin Newsom, reported that Popal was the suspect in custody. Court and property records list Popal's age as 29.

A woman who identified herself as his cousin said Popal was having recurring nightmares about someone coming to kill him and had been taking medication.

Apparent blown tire leads to bus crash

WESTPORT, N.Y. - Nineteen people remained hospitalized Tuesday after a Greyhound bus tumbled off an Adirondacks highway after apparently blowing a tire, officials said. The bus driver and four passengers were killed.

Dazed passengers said they remembered a loud sound from the tires and then a cartwheeling motion as the bus flipped and landed on its roof Monday evening.

Several of the 53 passengers were thrown out of the bus, which had a seat belt only for the driver. One person was in critical condition Tuesday, and at least five others were in serious condition, hospital officials said.

The bus had left New York shortly after noon Monday headed for Montreal. It crashed about 110 miles north of Albany.

The crash killed the driver, Ronald Burgess, 52, of Central Islip, N.Y.; 81-year-old Antonide Dorce of Hempstead, N.Y.; and three Canadians: Souleymane Tambadou, 16; Doreen George, 69; and Hamidou Barry, 34, all of Montreal, authorities said.

Greyhound spokeswoman Anna Folmnsbee said the bus passed its annual federal inspection last week.

Census Bureau: Poverty line unchanged

WASHINGTON - Four years into an economic recovery, the number of people living in poverty has finally stopped climbing.

Household incomes edged up slightly in 2005, but 37-million people were still living below the poverty line, about the same as the year before, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

It was the first year without an increase in poverty since 2000, just before President Bush took office.

Some Republicans blamed the stubborn poverty numbers on immigrants holding down wages.

Democrats blamed the Bush administration, noting incomes are lower and the poverty rate is higher than when Bush took office. Democrats also noted that the number of people without health insurance climbed for the sixth straight year, reaching 46.6-million in 2005.

The Census Bureau surveyed 100,000 households about their incomes and health insurance in 2005.

Florida's numbers: median household income, $42,433, a decrease of 6.8 percent from 1999; people without health insurance, 3.7-million, an increase of 30.9 percent; and its poverty rate increased from 12.5 to 12.8.

[Last modified August 30, 2006, 00:59:51]