Busy, busy, busy

And another example of what we call Bad Prose from Pros. This thing reads like a dime novel, keeping the reader guessing for seven paragraphs

Police arrested a 66-year-old Penn Hills man Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving after he allegedly hit three vehicles, seriously injuring one driver.

The collisions occurred on Bull Creek Road at East 10th Avenue. Police were called around 3:45 p.m.

Louis Ziacik, 72, of Harrison, was trapped in the overturned vehicle, a Buick Century, while his 17-year-old grandson, who was not identified, got out on his own. Ziacik was alert and conscious when he was taken by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, with multiple injuries, police said.

Ziacik was in critical condition yesterday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said.

"How somebody didn't get killed is beyond me," Tarentum Officer Mark Glogowski said.

Glogowski said police found a flask of what appeared to be alcohol in the glove compartment of a Honda Civic driven by Louis Kumer Jr. Kumer was taken to Allegheny Valley Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and to have blood drawn for testing. He consented to the blood test but refused to talk with police about the crash, Glogowski said.

Glogowski said all of the vehicles involved were traveling into Tarentum from Route 28.

Here it is - eight grafs into the story the gist of the message - who did it?

Based on witness accounts, Glogowski said Kumer was traveling at high speed and attempted to drive between the left-turn lane to East 10th Avenue and the middle travel lane.

In the turn lane, Kumer first sideswiped a Buick LaCrosse driven by Shawn Mele, 21, of Tarentum, damaging a side mirror. In the car were Mele's wife, Jessica, and their three young children. They were not hurt.

Kumer then hit a Honda Civic driven by Joseph Vedro, 19, of Brackenridge, causing severe damage to its right rear. Vedro was not hurt.

Kumer's car then hit the left rear of Ziacik's Buick, which was stopped at the light in the middle lane, pushing it into a curb and causing it to roll over several


Let's rewrite doing mostly a cut&paste:


Police arrested a 66-year-old Penn Hills man Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving after he allegedly hit three vehicles, seriously injuring one driver. The collisions occurred on Bull Creek Road at East 10th Avenue around 3:45 p.m.

Based on witness accounts, (Tarentum Officer Mark) Glogowski said (Louis) Kumer was traveling at high speed and attempted to drive between the left-turn lane to East 10th Avenue and the middle travel lane. Glogowski said police found a flask of what appeared to be alcohol in the glove compartment of a Honda Civic driven by Louis Kumer Jr. (who) was taken to Allegheny Valley Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and to have blood drawn for testing. He consented to the blood test but refused to talk with police about the crash, Glogowski said.

In the turn lane, Kumer first sideswiped a Buick LaCrosse driven by Shawn Mele, 21, of Tarentum, damaging a side mirror. In the car were Mele's wife, Jessica, and their three young children. They were not hurt.

Kumer then hit a Honda Civic driven by Joseph Vedro, 19, of Brackenridge, causing severe damage to its right rear. Vedro was not hurt.

Kumer's car then hit the left rear of Ziacik's Buick, which was stopped at the light in the middle lane, pushing it into a curb and causing it to roll over several times. Louis Ziacik, 72, of Harrison, was trapped in the overturned vehicle, a Buick Century, while his 17-year-old grandson, who was not identified, got out on his own. Ziacik was alert and conscious when he was taken by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, with multiple injuries, police said.

Ziacik was in critical condition yesterday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said.

"How somebody didn't get killed is beyond me," Tarentum Officer Mark Glogowski said.

Keeping score

Here's a group photo of a batch of folks I hadn't seen in 35 years or so. Way back when we were going to change the world. We didn't change everything, but we have made a difference. A boat builder, a librarian, an engineer, a physician, a journalist, a few stay at home moms, a professor of parks and recreationand the rest. Go Team 60's

Boy, have I goten lazy

or here's another bad writing example:

The fire, the ninth reported in that neighborhood since last month, was reported at 2:12 a.m. in the 3000 block of Merwyn.

As today is the 6th of July, this would seem to indicate there have been nine fires in 5 days. But, dear readers, I suspect that is not what they mean.