Accident Victims

A Utah woman listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for her long fingernails has lost them in a car crash. Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries in the accident Tuesday. Redmond's nails, which hadn't been cut since 1979, were broken in the crash. According to the Guinness website, her nails measured a total of more than 28 feet long in 2008, with the longest nail on her right thumb at 2 feet, 11 inches.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 160 injured when a train derailed in eastern India, an official said. Sixteen cars of a train on its way from Kolkata to Chennai left the tracks in Orissa state near the town of Jajpur, said J.P. Mishra, a spokesman for the East Coast Railway. Forty people were hospitalized in serious condition, but their injuries were not life-threatening, he said. Accidents are common on India's sprawling rail network, one of the world's largest, with most accidents blamed on poor maintenance.

A 23-year-old woman was hospitalized Wednesday afternoon after she was rescued from the Point Fermin cliffs in San Pedro, authorities said. The unidentified woman was airlifted from the bottom of the cliffs and taken by ambulance to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with leg, back and neck pain, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Firefighters were dispatched to the 1000 block of Paseo del Mar about 12:42 p.m. by helicopter, boats and trucks, Humphrey said.

Panamanian authorities said a prominent ruling party lawmaker and son of a former vice president had died in a traffic accident. A police statement said Tomas Altamirano Mantovani was killed when a vehicle he was riding in overturned on a highway east of Panama City. A bodyguard and another man in the car were hospitalized. Altamirano, 49, was the son of former Vice President Tomas Altamirano Duque and the head of the National Assembly's Canal Affairs Commission.

A member of the ski patrol was killed in an avalanche at Squaw Valley USA on Tuesday as a severe winter storm dumped several feet of snow on the region and forced the closure of a nearly 100-mile stretch of Interstate 80 west of Reno for several hours. Andrew Entin, 41, a longtime member of the ski patrol, was working on avalanche controls about 8 a.m. when he was caught in a slide and partially buried, Squaw Valley Fire Department spokesman Pete Bansen said.

A Louisville official was critically injured and two other people were hospitalized after falling about 30 feet when stairs collapsed inside a historic downtown building. Downtown Development Corp. Director Alan DeLisle and three others were touring the building when the wooden staircase to the third floor crashed to the first floor, said Louisville Fire spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez. Firefighters pulled DeLisle, Deputy Director Patti Clare and building owner Paul Bariteau from the rubble, said Chris Poynter, a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Abramson.

The coroner's office Friday identified a 13-year-old boy who was killed after he tried to outrun a freight train. Stacy Frierson of Fresno was tossed about 20 yards when a freight train traveling 60 mph struck him Thursday, said Lt. Gregg Sanders of the Fresno Police Department. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, Sanders said. An autopsy was pending, a Fresno coroner's official said. Stacy was in a group of 4 to 5 children who were running south on Fruit Avenue near Ashland Avenue.

A woman whose body was found floating in Huntington Harbour early Thursday morning apparently fell into the water near her boat, after walking back from a bar where she had hit her head, authorities said Thursday. Police have not ruled out foul play in the death of Anna Krivenkoff, 45, who lived aboard a 27-foot sport boat. But information gathered so far indicates that she was probably injured at or near Turc's bar and then walked 175 yards to the dock before falling into the harbor, according to Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

A woman fell to her death from a balcony at a Daytona Beach motel. Heather Crawford, 30, of Frostburg was either standing on a chair on the balcony or sitting on the railing when she fell just before 3 a.m., the Daytona Beach Police Department said. A security guard at the motel found Crawford's body after he heard a thud and went to investigate. Crawford was on vacation with her boyfriend. No foul play is suspected, police said.

Two women were killed and a man critically injured Tuesday when they were struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk, authorities said. Sgt. Chris Tatar of the West Hollywood sheriff's station said at least two cars were involved in the accident, which occurred at 6:24 p.m. near the corner of Fountain and La Brea avenues, on the border of West Hollywood and Los Angeles. After colliding with another vehicle, one car continued along Fountain and struck the pedestrians in the crosswalk, Tatar said.