Accidents Ohio

Two horses clipped heels halfway through a race at the Beulah Park racetrack Friday, causing four horses to spill and injuring their jockeys, a track spokesman said. None of the horses were injured. The accident occurred in the fourth race when Jeffrey Righter, riding Styloid, tried to move outside of Ruth's Babe on the far turn of the one-mile track, spokesman Vic Mason said. He said the horses clipped heels, and Styloid fell. Three other horses that were bunched behind also fell.

A Goodyear blimp crashed into a wooded area behind a home Thursday night near the company's air dock, slightly injuring both people aboard, a company spokesman said. A pilot and a technician for the blimp's night sign suffered minor cuts but no serious injuries, Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said. They were treated at a local hospital and released. No one on the ground was hurt. It was unclear why the blimp went down. The airship started to deflate and descend slowly about 6 p.m., Price said.

The popular XK-1 ride at Knott's Berry Farm remained closed Tuesday as a precaution after an accident Sunday in which a woman was thrown to her death from an identical ride at an Ohio amusement park. The 2-year-old XK-1 was shut down two hours after the weekend accident at the Kings Island park in Mason, Ohio, said Stuart Zanville, a Knott's spokesman. The ride's Swiss manufacturer notified Knott's officials of the accident.

Second-generation race driver Page Jones remained unconscious Monday night in the intensive care unit of a Dayton, Ohio, hospital after suffering a skull fracture during a race Sunday in Rossburg, Ohio. Jones, 22, son of 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, was leading the sprint car portion of the U.S. Auto Club's 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway when his car apparently went up on two wheels along a concrete wall and began cartwheeling.

Bob Gebhard, the Minnesota Twin vice president of player personnel, has accepted the job of general manager of the expansion Colorado Rockies, baseball sources said Saturday. John McHale, the son of the former Montreal Expo president, has agreed to run the business side of the Rockies, who begin play in 1993, a source familiar with the Denver team said. Gebhard has been the assistant to Twin General Manager Andy MacPhail since 1986.

A Goodyear blimp crashed into a wooded area behind a home Thursday night near the company's air dock, slightly injuring both people aboard, a company spokesman said. A pilot and a technician for the blimp's night sign suffered minor cuts but no serious injuries, Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said. They were treated at a local hospital and released. No one on the ground was hurt. It was unclear why the blimp went down. The airship started to deflate and descend slowly about 6 p.m., Price said.

Second-generation race driver Page Jones remained unconscious Monday night in the intensive care unit of a Dayton, Ohio, hospital after suffering a skull fracture during a race Sunday in Rossburg, Ohio. Jones, 22, son of 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, was leading the sprint car portion of the U.S. Auto Club's 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway when his car apparently went up on two wheels along a concrete wall and began cartwheeling.

The first volleys of the next roller coaster revolution have been fired in the forested Idaho panhandle, the emerging epicenter of thrill ride innovation. Located in the small town of Hayden, Idaho, Rocky Mountain Construction has burst onto the ride manufacturing scene seemingly out of nowhere, shaking the theme park industry like a rumbling coaster train rocketing along a rickety old track with plans to build two looping wooden coasters in 2013. > Photos: Rocky Mountain and the history of looping wooden coasters Not since the coaster wars of the 1980s and '90s have the possibilities for thrill rides, new and revamped,   seemed so promising.

Up to 10 inches of snow fell in the central Appalachians today and snowflakes clung to spring flowers in the nation's capital, while thermometers hit record lows for the date from Michigan to Florida. Freezing temperatures spread as far south as Huntsville, Ala., which tied its record for the date of 32 degrees. At least three traffic deaths were blamed on the snow. Ten inches of snow piled up in Pittsburgh's northern suburbs and the Allegheny Mountains east of the city.

More rain fell Monday on the soaked Northeast, where high water had forced more than 1,000 people to leave their homes, and residents of some low-lying areas were warned that they might have to join the evacuees. The water had washed out or flooded scores of roads. Snow that the same storm had piled into drifts up to 15 feet high in the central Appalachians was melting. And after a week of record cold across the South, the only record lows Monday were in the 40s in Florida.

Bob Gebhard, the Minnesota Twin vice president of player personnel, has accepted the job of general manager of the expansion Colorado Rockies, baseball sources said Saturday. John McHale, the son of the former Montreal Expo president, has agreed to run the business side of the Rockies, who begin play in 1993, a source familiar with the Denver team said. Gebhard has been the assistant to Twin General Manager Andy MacPhail since 1986.

The popular XK-1 ride at Knott's Berry Farm remained closed Tuesday as a precaution after an accident Sunday in which a woman was thrown to her death from an identical ride at an Ohio amusement park. The 2-year-old XK-1 was shut down two hours after the weekend accident at the Kings Island park in Mason, Ohio, said Stuart Zanville, a Knott's spokesman. The ride's Swiss manufacturer notified Knott's officials of the accident.

Two horses clipped heels halfway through a race at the Beulah Park racetrack Friday, causing four horses to spill and injuring their jockeys, a track spokesman said. None of the horses were injured. The accident occurred in the fourth race when Jeffrey Righter, riding Styloid, tried to move outside of Ruth's Babe on the far turn of the one-mile track, spokesman Vic Mason said. He said the horses clipped heels, and Styloid fell. Three other horses that were bunched behind also fell.

A snowstorm blamed for at least 33 deaths plowed across the Midwest on Monday, bringing more snow and ice, shutting down several Indiana counties and stranding hundreds of travelers and closing schools. Winter storm warnings were issued for parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York state and southern New England. Heavy rain in Georgia and Alabama, along the storm's southern edge, caused flooding that forced evacuations of nearly 300 people.

A frigid air mass spread from the Great Lakes to New England and the South Monday, plunging temperatures to record lows and sending homeless people into shelters. Accidents on snowy roads were blamed for 10 deaths, and a woman warming her heatless home with candles died in a fire. More than a foot of snow was responsible for hundreds of weekend traffic accidents in Ohio, authorities said. Wind-whipped snow caused hazardous driving conditions through much of Kansas.