SOUTHWEST

FIREFIGHTERS SEARCH FOR VICTIMS AS WEATHER POSES FIRE THREAT

RINGGOLD, Texas – Authorities went house to house in a search for victims in burned-out towns yesterday as firefighters in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma battled grass fires across the drought-stricken region.

Since Tuesday, fires have charred thousands of acres of grassland and farmland and destroyed more than 250 structures in the three states. Four deaths were reported last week in Texas and Oklahoma.

Officials warned that the dry, windy weather and extreme fire danger would continue. “At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires,” Oklahoma City Fire Department Major Brian Stanaland said yesterday.

Computer models yesterday showed no rain in the foreseeable future, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth, Jesse Moore, said. He said the region’s last appreciable rain was about a quarter-inch on December 20. Oklahoma is more than a foot behind its normal rainfall of about 36 inches for this time of year.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

STUDY SHOWS CHILDREN NO SAFER IN SUVS THAN CARS

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Children are no safer riding in sport utility vehicles than in passenger cars, largely because the doubled risk of rollovers in SUVs cancels out the safety advantages of their greater size and weight, according to a study. Researchers said the findings dispel the bigger-equals-safer myth that has helped fuel the growing popularity of SUVs among families. SUV registrations climbed 250% in America between 1995 and 2002.

“We’re not saying they’re worse or that they’re terrible vehicles. We’re challenging the conventional wisdom that everyone assumed they were better,” a pediatric emergency physician who took part in the study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Dennis Durbin, said.

A spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Eron Shosteck, said he had not seen the study but cited government research released last summer that found SUVs have become less top-heavy since 2000 and made dramatic improvements in rollover resistance.

The study, which Dr. Durbin called the first on SUVs and child safety, was sponsored by a research project of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Partners for Child Passenger Safety, and the world’s largest insurer, Bloomington-based State Farm Insurance.

The researchers looked at accidents involving nearly 4,000 children under age 16 between 2000 and 2003, and found child injury rates of about 1.7% in both cars and SUVs. The study examined only 1998 or newer cars and SUVs with second-generation air bags.

– Associated Press