A Stranger's London
Hero driver twice saves the same girl
Driver Kevin Fisher has saved a girl in a car crash - six years after rescuing her in an almost identical accident. Hairdresser Tracy Watson couldn't believe it when told who had pulled her from her car after hitting a tree. "Kevin must be my guardian angel because I would be dead except for him" she said."I didn't know who had saved me until Kevin came to see me," said Tracy, of Solihull, West Midlands. "The coincidence is incredible". The second accident was at Redditch, Kevin was driving in front of Tracy and saw what happened. Again he saved her just in time and she escaped with a broken ankle.
Boy killed sniffing deodorant
A schoolboy died after sniffing from a deodorant can. Spencer Mason, 14, of Penford Street, Stockwell, South London, inhaled the lethal fumes by smothering his face in a blanket. He was drenched with the substance.In the middle of the night he screamed, relapsed into a coma, and died in hospital, the hearing at Southwark, London, SE, was told.
A doctor said that the effect of the chemical was to cut off oxygen to the brain, causing him to die of suffocation.
Can I go home to my dog?
A woman has asked a judge to excuse her from jury service because she has to look after her dog.Minutes after being sworn in for a theft case at Southwark Crown Court, in South London, she stood up and asked to be discharged.
The woman told an astonished Judge Derek Clarkson QC, that if the trial did not finish in four days she would not be able to complete her jury service because there would be no one at home to look after the animal.
An officer was made to find the dog a place in police kennels near the court. But the woman said she would rather leave her 15-year-old pet locked in a car on the court car park.
Worker dies in mincer
A man was killed when he became caught up in a mincing machine, an inquest has heard.Kevin Hesling, 24, was employed at a food factory in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was working alone when the accident happened and it is not known if he fell into the machine or was pulled in.
The coroner at Wakefield was told that Hesling may have been dislodging meat or possibly trying to retrieve his cigarette lighter, found in the machine later. Verdict: Accident.
Only for the rich
Universities will soon be open only to rich and middle class children. Government plans mean that only the A Level grades will secure a university place, the National Union of Students has said.And even if comprehensive school pupils reach that level, proposals to replace grants with loans will mean that their parents can't afford to send them to college.
The NUS is organising a nationwide campaign against the Green Paper on higher education which aims to reduce last year's 126,000 university entrants to 95,000 by the 1990's.
It states bluntly that immediate entry should not automatically be the next step for successful A-level pupils.
An NUS spokesman said: "The Government is slamming the door on working class kids just when they have got their foot in it.
He said: "The Government is putting the clock back 30 years to create an elite system of higher education and fodder for industry".
Tell it to the marines
People who relate stories that nobody believes are often told: "Go tell it to the Marines!"Just over 300 years ago Charles II didn't believe a word when a traveller told him he had seen flying fish. But when a Marine vouched for the story, the King decreed it must be true. He said: "No class of our subjects can have so wide a knowledge of seas and lands as the men of our loyal Maritime Regiment of Foot. Henceforward whenever we cast doubts about a tale that lacks likelihood, we will first tell it to the Marines".
Prison turns away man on the run
A man tried to give himself up at a prison but was told to go away. Haydn Smith was advised to go to the police instead. But 20-year-old Smith went on the run again and was not recaptured until days later.Smith and another man had been remanded in custody on burglary charges by Cardiff magistrates. As they left they overpowered police guards and escaped. His parents took him to Cardiff Prison after he rang them. Mrs June Smith said yesterday: "I was flabbergasted when he was turned away" A Home Office spokesman explained that Smith was a police prisoner and so the prison could not let him in.
