2012 HSPA Foundation Better Newspaper Contest First-Place Stories
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2012 HSPA Foundation Better Newspaper Contest first-place stories Division 1 Best News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure/Category 1 Linemen more than gridiron heroes Lisa W. Hoppenjans Ferdinand News Senior Anthony Fischer, junior Austin Kempf and sophomore Ethan Knust, friends on and off the football field, were just walking into Rural King last Saturday morning when they heard the squeal of tires and the scream of tearing metal. “Two ladies in the parking lot were yelling there was a wreck,” relates Fischer, “so we went up to where we could get a better view.” They saw a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck lying on its passenger side in the roadway, along with an overturned trailer full of rock. No one, so far, had emerged from the wreckage. “We just looked at each other and took off,” Kempf says. As they approached the vehicle, they heard a little girl crying. “We knew we had to help her,” Fischer says. “We thought she might be squished or something.” They moved closer. “We thought we might see something we really didn’t want to see,” adds Kempf. “But then the husband crawled out and pulled his daughter out behind him,” Knust explains. As Fischer walked around the truck, he saw fire coming out of the engine compartment and fuel leaking out the back. “It wasn’t bad, but I knew it was gonna get worse,” Fischer shudders. “We told the husband about the fire and he started yelling, ‘We’ve got to get my wife – my pregnant wife – outta there!’,” Kempf continues. Knust, Kempf and Fischer, along with an older man and a young woman in a military uniform, managed to lift the truck back onto its wheels and the pregnant woman was able to escape. “As soon as we pushed the truck up, the fire got bigger,” Fischer says. “The lady took her little daughter to the side of the road and just cried,” Kempf continues. “Then, the lady from Rural King was coming with an extinguisher.” Rural King employee Susan Kraemer was on her way across the parking lot with a fire extinguisher. Fischer ran to meet her, grabbed the extinguisher and headed back to the wreck. The fire was out by the time emergency personnel arrived. According to the Jasper Police report, Kyle Rummel, 26, of Huntingburg was westbound on SR 162, east of Lube Way, driving a 1999 Toyota Tacoma that was pulling a trailer full of rock. (The truck bed was also loaded with rock, the boys said.) Rummel later told police that, as he crossed the railroad tracks, the trailer began to sway. He hit the brakes, then realized he should accelerate. As he sped up, the load shifted and the trailer overturned, taking the truck with it. The truck landed on its passenger side and slid down the highway. The engine compartment caught fire. Rummel said he managed to get out of the truck, but his wife was pinned inside until three bystanders helped flip the truck back onto its wheels. The three amigos thought that would be the end of it. “They didn’t even take our names,” grins Kempf. As they finished their shopping, all three boys contacted their parents to tell them what happened. In this age of social networking, their adventure had gone viral by the time they headed for home. The three don’t really think they did anything extraordinary. “I’m sure [Rummel] would’ve done the same for us,” Fischer shrugs. “Hey, it’s Karma,” grins Knust. “We’ll get it back some day.” Did they stop to think they could have been hurt? “Maybe. But we weren’t just going back to shopping,” Kempf says. The three heroes are taking their newfound notoriety in stride. “My mom’s still getting all kinds of texts,” Kempf says. “My grandma keeps calling all our relatives (including Fischer’s aunt, TV 25’s Shelley Kirk),” Fischer adds. “It’s hard to get any sleep – my phone keeps ringing,” Knust chuckles. The other two join in and the three enjoy a few moments of laughter before Fischer suddenly becomes solemn. “If we didn’t have that extinguisher, that truck could’ve blown.” *** Erica S. Rummel, 25, and her daughter, Alexis S. Rummel, were transported to Memorial Hospital by private vehicle for treatment of minor cuts and scrapes. The vehicle was totaled in the 11:54 a.m., August 27 accident. Jasper Police were assisted at the scene by Indiana State Police, Dubois County Sheriff ’s deputies and the Jasper Fire Department. It took approximately 45 minutes to clear the road of rock. Best News Coverage With No Deadline Pressure/Category 2 U.S. 41 closures stir Fort Branch By Andrea Preston South Gibson Star-Times (Fort Branch) Fort Branch officials are hurriedly putting together a last-minute effort in hopes of stopping a state transportation project with long- lasting impacts slated to get underway this week. Tom Wallace, president of the Fort Branch Town Council, said Monday morning the town is requesting the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) “stop” the planned project of removing roughly half of Fort Branch’s U.S. 41 median cross-overs. “We’re putting together a formal request to stop this because of safety concerns,” said Wallace, adding town officials, along with Ray Druley, town attorney, were still drafting the letter Monday morning. Within the month, INDOT plans to remove six of the median cross-overs in the Fort Branch area alone. Those include (from North to South): Iroquois Drive, Sinclair Street, Vine Street, Walnut Street, Mulberry Street and just south of Oak Street. (In 2013, the median just north of Coal Mine is slated to be removed.) The removal of those cross-overs means that northbound U.S. 41 traffic will now be diverted to the remaining cross-overs (or Coal Mine and Indiana 168) for anyone wanting to turn left (west) and come into Fort Branch. The cross-overs that will remain open are: John Street, Locust Street, Strain Street and Oak Street. The removal will also force any resident leaving Fort Branch to go to one of the remaining open crossovers (or Coal Mine or Indiana 168) if they are wanting to turn left and go north on U.S. 41. And any resident in the Little York subdivision wishing to go north on U.S. 41 will now be forced to use the subdivision’s Indiana 168 access point instead of crossing at the median cross-over. All streets will still have access off of southbound U.S. 41, so traffic can make a right hand turn onto any of the streets. The work is expected to be completed by the end of April. “It’s going to cause a lot of problems. We (Fort Branch) see it as a major safety concern,” Wallace said. “Too much traffic is going to be forced onto a few streets and cross-overs. We’re going to see people doing U-turns on U.S. 41 and we don’t want that.” One concern, Wallace said, is Oak Street. He said the already busy street will see even more traffic because of the closures. Oak Street intersects with Hillcrest Street, one block north of the Fort Branch Community School. Hillcrest is one of only two routes to get to the school. Because of heavy traffic on Oak Street already, the town applied for a grant to build a sidewalk. They were awarded the grant and construction on it will begin within the month. “The increased traffic is not a good thing from a safety standpoint,” Wallace said. In addition, the town plans on putting out petitions against the closures at area businesses for residents to sign who are against the closings. Those petitions will then be presented to INDOT at a later time Best Ongoing News Coverage/Category 3 For the love of Andrea Amanda Matlock The Times-Post (Pendleton) A former Pendleton Heights High School homecoming queen and at least one other resident from Pendleton were among the more than 40 people injured during the Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed five on Saturday, Aug. 13. Andrea Vellinga, 30, of Pendleton suffered a critical injury after she was hit in the head during the collapse. Vellinga, a married mother of one, is currently in intensive care following a five-hour brain surgery, according to her brother Tyler Voss. “Andrea is currently breathing with the help of a ventilator,” Voss said. “As independent a spirit as Andrea is, you can imagine the look of disgust on her face to have help with anything right now, let alone a ventilator. That should just assure us once again, she will win this war.” Voss said his sister was waiting to watch the Sugarland concert from the front row and was injured by falling rafters. “We assume that she was injured from a piece of the stage,” Voss said. “Right now she’s in such a delicate state, but she has contusions on both the right and left side of her skull.” Voss added that she is currently in a medically induced coma so that the doctors can keep control of her vitals as opposed to letting her body take over. “Through prayer, she has been able to sustain a consistent ICP (intracranial pressure) below 20 and temperature below 100,” Voss said. “She is our fighter. The next few days continue to be very important for her to keep the swelling down in her brain to avoid any further damage or trauma.” Vellinga’s family and Facebook page have seen an outpouring of prayer and support from community members and friends.