News Writing Exercises

1. A man has been killed and two firemen have been hospitalised when a van struck a fire engine this morning.

The fire engine struck Mr. Charles Welles van at high speed as he was travelling north at the intersection of Post Road and Rollins Avenue. Mr Welles was killed instantly and currently the condition of the fireman is unknown. Tragically the fire engine was responding to a reported shop fire that was later found to be a false alarm.

The fire engine was travelling at an estimated 40km/h and Mr Welles van was travel at 60 km/h at the time collision. As yet authorities have not determined the responsible party. The damage to the truck was estimated at $90,000 and Mr Welles van was destroyed.

2.Motorists driving large cars are up to 41 percent less likely the average to be hurt in an accident than drivers of smaller cars according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, Canberra.

The institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have released a report detailing the advantages of larger cars. The study found that small two-door models, midsize and specialty car the worst injury and repair records. Numerous small car models have injury claim frequencies and repair losses at least 30 per cent higher than average. While various large cars, station wagons and vans show 40 per cent to 50 per cent better-than-average claim records.

3.Hot dogs are so dangerous that every five days, it is estimated, a child in Victoria chokes to death on them, says Journal of the Victorian Medical Association

A researcher from the JVMA said “If you were trying to design something that would be perfect to block a child’s airway, it would be a bite size piece of hotdog.

He said that children under four should “never be given a whole hot dog to eat” and hot dogs should never be cut crosswise.

Other risky foods for children aged nine and under include: lollies, nuts, grapes, apples, carrots, and popcorn.

4. A grief-stricken family is expecting the prospect of having to bury their love one twice after a misidentification error by the state medical examiner.

The body buried at the funeral was that of a woman whose corpse had been unclaimed for months. The person intended to be buried was 51 year old Kristine Belcuore who died of a heart attack last week leaving behind a husband and four children.

Her death was so sudden and expected, an autopsy had to be performed before the funeral last Saturday. In attendance at the funeral was over 100 friends and relatives at a cost to the family of $7000. The family never viewed the remains; they kept the casket closed throughout the proceedings.

The error was only discovered after the medical examiners office realised the month-old unclaimed corpse had disappeared. It is unclear how the error occurred with the state medical examiner speculating that, “someone probably misread an identifying tag”

Today, the family received an apologetic call from the state medical examiner. It’s little comfort to the family with a relative saying, “We went through all the pain and everything, all over the wrong body, and now we have to go through it again.”

5. A survey has found that 75 percent of prisoners said they would expect little or no trouble if they tried to get a handgun after their release from prison.

The survey was conducted by the Department of Justice with the assistance of 1,874 men serving time for crimes in 11 state prisons. The results are inauspicious, as new laws limiting the ownership of guns has been found to not discourage handgun ownership by career criminals. Most criminals acquire weapons most often by theft or under-the-counter deals.. Thirty-two percent of their guns had been stolen, 26 percent acquired in black market deals, and others received as gifts from family and friends. Fifty-seven percent had owned a handgun at the time of their arrest.

Although curbs on legitimate retail sales of guns have failed to attain the goal of keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals, the laws still may serve other useful functions.

6. Thomas C. Ahl has been sentenced to two life terms, plus 300 years at the County Court today.

He pleaded guilty last week to robbing and murdering two restaurant employees. In return the prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty. The sentence is the longest given to anyone in the history of the state and Ahl will be 89 before he can be considered for parole.

The judge believed that there had been no reason for him to shoot the two employees to death and Ahl himself admitted that the employees had not resisted and posed no threat. In sentencing the judge reasoned that Ahl had a long history of violence and brutality and that the public deserved to be protected from him.

7.An annual report from the International Standardisation Organisation has warned “everyone living in cities could be stone deaf by the year 2020”. The report warns that noise levels in the world are rising by decibel a year.

This news come as the organisation opens its annual convention, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Acoustic experts and delegates from 51 countries are attending the convention, which will continue over the weekend. The report said long-term exposure to a noise level of 100 decibels can cause deafness, yet a riveting gun reaches a level of 130 decibels and a jet aircraft 150.

8. High school students are required to read controversial book. Several teachers were up against harsh critics- the parents.

The book can no longer be used in any junior high school classes but remains available in junior and senior libraries for voluntary reading.

The book was written by Thomas Keneally titled “The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.” The booked has been deemed racist and critics want to have it banned from all schools in the city.

The book describes of a man of half-Aboriginal ancestry, pushed to breaking point by the racist oppression perpetrated by the British in 1990 and his inability to acclimate to Western culture.

Superintendent of schools, Gary Hubbard, announced today that it will be allowed as a require reading for high school English classes but not in any Junior high school classes.

He reiterated that it will be the responsibility of the high school teachers who assign the book to help students comprehend the historical setting of the book.

9. School Bus Crash

Four people are dead three of them children, with a further five in critical condition after two buses collided yesterday afternoon.

The crash occurred on the corner of Ocean Parade and Scenic highway, Smalltown. The first bus was from nearby Kingfisher Primary School, which was returning from an excursion and the other a national coach service en route from Sydney to Melbourne.

The Rural Ambulance Service said an additional twenty people have been injured in the accident, among them the school bus driver Mr Joe Dodgy who is in a critical condition.

Preliminary police reports indicate that the national coach service bus driver may have to blame for the accident and according to a witness who had come in close proximity to the bus driver had “smelt alcohol on his breath”. Another witness saw the bus driver fleeing the crash scene.

A community member of Ocean Parade, Mr. Gerard Hardwind, witnessed the devastating scene said “I heard a huge bang like a bomb going off and I ran down to the corner, it looked like the national bus had slammed head on into the school bus”

Mr Hardwind described the graphic scene in further detail. “It was just awful there were bodies everywhere” The local community have been campaigning for the better traffic signals at the intersection for years.

Mr Hardwind pointed the blame squarely at local councillors. “The local councillors should be bloody jailed… It is so dangerous, but they are so corrupt they have just sat back and nothing”

Mrs Caroline Primm headmistress of the Smalltown school said the accident had a “devastating affect” on everyone associated with the school. Heartbreakingly “the children had been looking forward to this trip for weeks and to have it end like this it is just too terrible”

10. 19 year old shoplifting suspect Timothy Milan died last Saturday.

An autopsy conducted to determine the cause of death revealed that Milan died due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Mr Milan was shopping at Dimmy’s Department Store prior to his death. A guard at Dimmy’s Department Store told police he saw Milan conceal two jumpers down his pants legs and attempted to walk out of the department store. Witnesses allege that Milan ran out the store and the guard gave chase with three bystanders joining the pursuit. Milan was apprehended a short time later and when resisted a bystander put him in a headlock. A police officer who arrived at the scene reported that Milan collapsed as he put handcuffs on him. Police said they do not plan to charge anyone involved in the case with a crime because it “was a case of excusable homicide.” The police said the bystanders did not mean to injure Milan or to kill him, but that he was fighting violently—punching and kicking his captors and even trying to bite them—and that they were simply trying to restrain him and trying to help capture a suspected criminal, “which is just being a good citizen.”

Mr Milan lived at 12 Huron Avenue and was employed as a cook at a restaurant in the city.