Black Ice

The first deep freeze of the season hasn't hit yet, but when it does, New Jersey transportation officials will be ready, they say. The state Department of Transportation is rolling out $1.6 million in pilot programs aimed at keeping problem roads ice-free. In Warren County, workers are installing a sprinkler system that automatically shoots out a melting solution when the temperature drops to a certain level. And in three other locations, including Cherry Hill, trucks have been outfitted with tanks that spew a saltwater mixture.

It might not be quite the correct temperature. The playing field is not exactly black ice. The puck is kind of spherical. The footwear has wheels. And the padding is a bit skimpy. But that did not stop some young people at Julian Krinsky Summer Camp at Shipley School in Bryn Mawr from getting deeply involved in a spirited game of roller hockey yesterday.

Black ice overnight and in the early morning hours, caused treacherous conditions for drivers along regions major highways Sunday. It took state police until early afternoon to clear an accident and get traffic moving on I-476 near I-76. No injuries or fatalities were reported. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania State Trooper Andrew Hartnett said his office would be issuing press release this morning about several accidents overnight including one resulting in a fatality. Drivers were reporting especially dangerous conditions on the Bristol entrance to I-95.

"Back in Black" took on renewed resonance Monday night as AC/DC blasted through it just three songs into its visit to the Wachovia Center, on its first world tour in seven years. Playing a rapid-fire clip of classics as well as several cuts off the new Black Ice, the reinvigorated, Australian-born band provided a deafening level of rock power, belying the fact that most of its members are now in their 50s. Barrel-chested singer Brian Johnson, 61, and blistering lead guitarist Angus Young brought bruising force to their by-now-familiar routine.

To all those considering writing a first book, it may help to know that Lorene Cary didn't think that she had anything to say. Or, at least, anything that she felt readers could relate to. After all, how many people have attended elite New England prep schools? And how many of them were black? But by the time she began writing the bittersweet memoir of her tenure as a scholarship student at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., in the early '70s, she "had stopped thinking about my experience as an aberration of black American life," says Cary, "and begun thinking of it as a variation on being black in America.

Two men pulled a woman to safety through a window of her burning car yesterday morning after the vehicle skidded on ice and struck a tree. Michele L. Reilly, 19, of Waterford, was being evaluated at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center's Trauma Center in Camden. The accident occurred at 8:28 a.m. when Reilly's Oldsmobile Cutlass, traveling west on Route 536, slid on black ice, Winslow police said. An unidentified woman and her 13-year-old son stopped their vehicle and tried to help Reilly, who was trapped inside, but they could not open the driver's door, which was jammed when the car hit the tree.

Ernest Rogers has seen a lot in his 17 years as a SEPTA bus operator, but he had never encountered anything like Wednesday night's perfect storm of ice and snow that trapped his bus from 8:45 p.m. until daybreak and made him a hero to its 50 riders. "Not a hero," the 55-year-old father of three said modestly last night, explaining that three other SEPTA buses were stranded within a block of his on Broad Street near 70th Avenue, and their operators did what he did. "We move people," Rogers said.

Three people were killed and more than 100 injured in the area during morning rush-hour accidents yesterday that resulted from unwary motorists losing control of their vehicles on slippery roadways. Authorities said most of the crashes were caused by "black ice" that formed on roads between 7 and 9 a.m. More than 80 people were injured in South Jersey and authorities at the Gloucester County Emergency Communication Center said about 10 requests for medical-evacuation helicopters were made in Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, Ocean and Salem Counties.

A Whitpain Township police officer got his happy new year early. Steve Nickel, 36, an 11-year veteran of the force, escaped major injury early Monday when he slammed his squad car into a utility pole while responding to a burglary. Nickel was at home with his family after the crash, recovering from lacerations of the face and head, said Police Chief Mark Smith. The officer had to be cut out of the vehicle and flown to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Hospital spokeswoman Kim Guenther said Nickel was released Monday morning.

As author Lorene Cary spoke about her experiences as a young black student at an elite, mostly white New England prep school, and about why it was important to try to understand "somebody else's ethnicity," Charles Washington identified with her message. Washington, president of the Minority Student Union at Ursinus College, said he felt uncomfortable because the college had only 33 black students in a student body of 1,100 and because "some people I've met (at Ursinus) have dealt with me based on stereotypes.

A Whitpain Township police officer got his happy new year early. Steve Nickel, 36, an 11-year veteran of the force, escaped major injury early Monday when he slammed his squad car into a utility pole while responding to a burglary. Nickel was at home with his family after the crash, recovering from lacerations of the face and head, said Police Chief Mark Smith. The officer had to be cut out of the vehicle and flown to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Hospital spokeswoman Kim Guenther said Nickel was released Monday morning.

Black ice overnight and in the early morning hours, caused treacherous conditions for drivers along regions major highways Sunday. It took state police until early afternoon to clear an accident and get traffic moving on I-476 near I-76. No injuries or fatalities were reported. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania State Trooper Andrew Hartnett said his office would be issuing press release this morning about several accidents overnight including one resulting in a fatality. Drivers were reporting especially dangerous conditions on the Bristol entrance to I-95.

Reviewed by Bernice L. McFadden Lorene Cary achieved national recognition as a writer when her book Black Ice was published in 1991. The Los Angeles Times Book Review touted Black Ice as a story about "being black in a quintessentially white world. " With her latest work, Cary does not stray from the theme that first garnered her fame; instead, she holds fast and delves further. The result is a multilayered, complex, and engaging tale of love, social injustice, and migrations - both physical and emotional.

Ernest Rogers has seen a lot in his 17 years as a SEPTA bus operator, but he had never encountered anything like Wednesday night's perfect storm of ice and snow that trapped his bus from 8:45 p.m. until daybreak and made him a hero to its 50 riders. "Not a hero," the 55-year-old father of three said modestly last night, explaining that three other SEPTA buses were stranded within a block of his on Broad Street near 70th Avenue, and their operators did what he did. "We move people," Rogers said.

THIS GAME, his hair actually seemed to be on fire. From his first shift, from his first hit, to the very scary and exciting end, Scott Hartnell was the player everyone around here once fell in love with, banging into people, into things, spinning all over the ice like a speeding Jeep hitting black ice. Hockey's Muppet set the tempo for last night's 4-3 overtime victory for the Flyers, laid out a road map for how they can not only climb back into...

HAVING JUST dug out from 28.5 inches of Blizzard 2010, the second-largest snowstorm in the city's history, residents are bracing for another foot of snow that forecasters say could start falling about 4 p.m. tomorrow. Today, students will have an extra day to play in the snow, as Philadelphia public and parochial schools are closed. Administrative and regional offices of the school district will open two hours late. But flights, public transit and even trash and recycling pickup are expected to proceed on time.

It took a hefty dose of chutzpah for a white guy to start the Celebration of Black Writing Festival. But independent bookseller Larry Robin is not your average guy. An aspiring sculptor, Robin came into the family bookstore business in the 1960s, after graduating from Central High. He built the store's reputation as the place to find writing from the civil rights, feminist, anti-war, and black liberation movements. By 1984, the year he founded the festival, Robin had a reputation as a liberal activist whose best friends were, indeed, black writers.

"Back in Black" took on renewed resonance Monday night as AC/DC blasted through it just three songs into its visit to the Wachovia Center, on its first world tour in seven years. Playing a rapid-fire clip of classics as well as several cuts off the new Black Ice, the reinvigorated, Australian-born band provided a deafening level of rock power, belying the fact that most of its members are now in their 50s. Barrel-chested singer Brian Johnson, 61, and blistering lead guitarist Angus Young brought bruising force to their by-now-familiar routine.

The first deep freeze of the season hasn't hit yet, but when it does, New Jersey transportation officials will be ready, they say. The state Department of Transportation is rolling out $1.6 million in pilot programs aimed at keeping problem roads ice-free. In Warren County, workers are installing a sprinkler system that automatically shoots out a melting solution when the temperature drops to a certain level. And in three other locations, including Cherry Hill, trucks have been outfitted with tanks that spew a saltwater mixture.

When Mary Guenzel's 74-year-old husband thought he broke his leg, she called 911 and told the dispatcher that he took a bad spill on black ice and needed help. The Fire Department dispatched a medic unit, but it never arrived at her Somerton home. Instead, paramedics stopped to examine a woman involved in a minor car accident half a block away. "How could they not know the difference in the addresses, and the difference between a car accident and a broken leg? A bent fender and a broken leg are worlds apart!"