Saturday, September 17, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
South Sudan's First Female Mechanics
from the Guardian UK
'My mechanic's overalls will make me a role model for other women'
Despite prejudice and opposition, four girls are training to become South Sudan's first female motor mechanics
Trainee female mechanics (left to right) Nura, Natalina and Gloria in the workshop. Photograph: Laura Powell for the Guardian
Laura Powell
Nura Koleji rubs her toe in the ochre dust, hugs her knees to her stomach, and keeps her eyes firmly downcast – until we hit on the one topic she is bubbling to talk about. It is not how she fled her village of Lanya when AK47-wielding soldiers arrived from the north during the Sudanese civil war. Nor how they kidnapped her brother to train him as a child soldier; how she watched as they picked out victims and shot them; or how her two uncles were among those butchered in front of her.
It is not even the topic I am here to speak to her about – why she decided to train as a mechanic. What really riles Nura is men's dominance in the workplace. Last week South Sudan, became an independent country following a 22-year war that ended in 2005. And in this brand new country, women such as Nura are keen to see changes.
"We have a saying that one hand is not enough to clap. It's true," she tells me. "We need both sexes, not just one. There's an hereditary attitude in my village that women are weaker. I ignore those words and despise the people who say them because I have louder words in my heart telling me I am strong."
Nura is not an activist; she has never heard the word "feminist". She is a 20-year-old, softly spoken Sudanese girl, wearing oil-slicked blue mechanic's overalls. When she graduates next year she, along with three other female classmates, will have defied the odds to become the first women mechanics in South Sudan.
By the time we meet at 9am, I've dressed, had breakfast and negotiated the potholed roads of Juba, Southern Sudan's de facto capital, to reach the technical college, a secondary school where the 470 students (85% of whom are boys) train to become electricians, bricklayers, carpenters or mechanics. Nura, meanwhile, has collected water from a borehole, swept her family's compound, poured tea for her six younger siblings, revised, and picked mangoes before her two-hour walk to school. After classes finish at 3pm, she will sell the fruit at Juba market and put the earnings towards her £41-a-year school fees.
As her 16-year-old classmate Pamela Daniel says: "If you live here, everything is a struggle. But if you don't struggle, you may as well spend your life asleep because nothing will come to you."
Nura chose this profession partly because she loves cars, partly because she would love to drive (but has neither the money nor facilities to learn), and partly because she wanted technical skills and a trade, rather than a traditional academic education. One motive, however, supersedes the rest; Nura believes there are no female role models in Southern Sudan and her ambition is to become the first.
This is quite a task for a girl whose mother is absent (she was separated as they fled Lanya during the war), whose father has no job, and whose income from trading mangoes leaves her with just enough money to pay school fees and buy shoes, but not enough for an exercise book. Even so, Nura has already overcome obstacles that halt the education of the majority of her peers.
Though 87% of Southern Sudanese women are illiterate, Nura and her classmates can read. While they live with their parents, the majority of girls in South Sudan girls are married off at 13. "Parents value the dowry more than their girls' education and freedom," says English teacher Emelda Elizulai Melling. And with the average dowry around 200 cows (vast numbers of the population earn less than £97 a year and the cheapest cow costs £280), it is not hard to understand why.
Even menstruation is a challenge. "When a girl has her period, she does not attend classes because she doesn't have the appropriate facilities," says Angelina Alel Habib, spokeswoman for Plan International in Southern Sudan. Luckily for Nura and her classmates, their teacher spends part of her wage on sanitary towels for the girls.
Then there is the fact that as the only four female mechanics students in a class of 60 boys, they faced relentless teasing and family opposition. "My neighbours laughed [at] my overalls. They said girls should not be mechanics," says 17-year-old Natalina Kiden, who would like to be a chauffeur but "doesn't want to rely on men for anything" – not even fixing a car.
Pamela, who hopes to train as an aeroplane mechanic, spent three days persuading her mother to let her go to technical college. "She thought automechanics was a dangerous and dirty job for men," says Pamela.
Nura, meanwhile, likes her overalls, despite the ridicule they provoke. And she doesn't worry that men might find her independence unattractive, or that when she marries, her husband might ban her from working. "I'll talk to my husband in a polite way and make sure he accepts my work," she tells me. "He will not refuse. I am determined. I will keep talking until he lets me."
This, after all, is a society with stringent gender-based traditions. "When women pour water for their husbands, they must kneel as a sign of respect," says Habib. And while sharia law was not imposed in the south of Sudan as it is in the north, its strict code has still restricted women's behaviour; for instance women are not supposed to speak in public. "One of the exciting changes our independence will bring is that women will finally be able to speak freely," says Habib.
Other equalities, such as increasing numbers of women in the workforce from the current 30%, will inevitably take longer. "It is not easy for men to adjust to the new economic status of women," warns mechanics teacher Francis Osumba. Juba college, which was built in the 1950s, only began accepting female students in 2005 to study bricklaying, and automechanics in 2008.
So far the students have mastered welding and engine cleaning, learned the entire anatomy of a car and even been taught how to make tables and chairs using scrap sheets of zinc – despite a poorly equipped workshop.
Nura dismisses these obstacles with touching optimism. Does she worry that male owners of car repair firms will be reluctant to hire a girl? "No," she says, insisting she will instead be a walking role model when women see her on the street in mechanic's overalls.
Osumba agrees: "The girls want to disprove people who say mechanical work is just for boys. It is not easy for them but they've passed their first and second year exams so why shouldn't they be given the same chance as the males?" Why not, indeed.
• To hear more about Juba's students: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2011/jan/11/southern-sudan-juba-students-audio-slideshow
It is not even the topic I am here to speak to her about – why she decided to train as a mechanic. What really riles Nura is men's dominance in the workplace. Last week South Sudan, became an independent country following a 22-year war that ended in 2005. And in this brand new country, women such as Nura are keen to see changes.
"We have a saying that one hand is not enough to clap. It's true," she tells me. "We need both sexes, not just one. There's an hereditary attitude in my village that women are weaker. I ignore those words and despise the people who say them because I have louder words in my heart telling me I am strong."
Nura is not an activist; she has never heard the word "feminist". She is a 20-year-old, softly spoken Sudanese girl, wearing oil-slicked blue mechanic's overalls. When she graduates next year she, along with three other female classmates, will have defied the odds to become the first women mechanics in South Sudan.
By the time we meet at 9am, I've dressed, had breakfast and negotiated the potholed roads of Juba, Southern Sudan's de facto capital, to reach the technical college, a secondary school where the 470 students (85% of whom are boys) train to become electricians, bricklayers, carpenters or mechanics. Nura, meanwhile, has collected water from a borehole, swept her family's compound, poured tea for her six younger siblings, revised, and picked mangoes before her two-hour walk to school. After classes finish at 3pm, she will sell the fruit at Juba market and put the earnings towards her £41-a-year school fees.
As her 16-year-old classmate Pamela Daniel says: "If you live here, everything is a struggle. But if you don't struggle, you may as well spend your life asleep because nothing will come to you."
Nura chose this profession partly because she loves cars, partly because she would love to drive (but has neither the money nor facilities to learn), and partly because she wanted technical skills and a trade, rather than a traditional academic education. One motive, however, supersedes the rest; Nura believes there are no female role models in Southern Sudan and her ambition is to become the first.
This is quite a task for a girl whose mother is absent (she was separated as they fled Lanya during the war), whose father has no job, and whose income from trading mangoes leaves her with just enough money to pay school fees and buy shoes, but not enough for an exercise book. Even so, Nura has already overcome obstacles that halt the education of the majority of her peers.
Though 87% of Southern Sudanese women are illiterate, Nura and her classmates can read. While they live with their parents, the majority of girls in South Sudan girls are married off at 13. "Parents value the dowry more than their girls' education and freedom," says English teacher Emelda Elizulai Melling. And with the average dowry around 200 cows (vast numbers of the population earn less than £97 a year and the cheapest cow costs £280), it is not hard to understand why.
Even menstruation is a challenge. "When a girl has her period, she does not attend classes because she doesn't have the appropriate facilities," says Angelina Alel Habib, spokeswoman for Plan International in Southern Sudan. Luckily for Nura and her classmates, their teacher spends part of her wage on sanitary towels for the girls.
Then there is the fact that as the only four female mechanics students in a class of 60 boys, they faced relentless teasing and family opposition. "My neighbours laughed [at] my overalls. They said girls should not be mechanics," says 17-year-old Natalina Kiden, who would like to be a chauffeur but "doesn't want to rely on men for anything" – not even fixing a car.
Pamela, who hopes to train as an aeroplane mechanic, spent three days persuading her mother to let her go to technical college. "She thought automechanics was a dangerous and dirty job for men," says Pamela.
Nura, meanwhile, likes her overalls, despite the ridicule they provoke. And she doesn't worry that men might find her independence unattractive, or that when she marries, her husband might ban her from working. "I'll talk to my husband in a polite way and make sure he accepts my work," she tells me. "He will not refuse. I am determined. I will keep talking until he lets me."
This, after all, is a society with stringent gender-based traditions. "When women pour water for their husbands, they must kneel as a sign of respect," says Habib. And while sharia law was not imposed in the south of Sudan as it is in the north, its strict code has still restricted women's behaviour; for instance women are not supposed to speak in public. "One of the exciting changes our independence will bring is that women will finally be able to speak freely," says Habib.
Other equalities, such as increasing numbers of women in the workforce from the current 30%, will inevitably take longer. "It is not easy for men to adjust to the new economic status of women," warns mechanics teacher Francis Osumba. Juba college, which was built in the 1950s, only began accepting female students in 2005 to study bricklaying, and automechanics in 2008.
So far the students have mastered welding and engine cleaning, learned the entire anatomy of a car and even been taught how to make tables and chairs using scrap sheets of zinc – despite a poorly equipped workshop.
Nura dismisses these obstacles with touching optimism. Does she worry that male owners of car repair firms will be reluctant to hire a girl? "No," she says, insisting she will instead be a walking role model when women see her on the street in mechanic's overalls.
Osumba agrees: "The girls want to disprove people who say mechanical work is just for boys. It is not easy for them but they've passed their first and second year exams so why shouldn't they be given the same chance as the males?" Why not, indeed.
• To hear more about Juba's students: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2011/jan/11/southern-sudan-juba-students-audio-slideshow
Friday, July 8, 2011
Modern Muscle
Muscle Cars, No Midlife Crisis Required
Big Engines, Throwback Looks Lure Baby Boomers and Twentysomethings; But Rising Fuel Prices and Regulations Loom
By JOSEPH B. WHITE at the Wall Street Journal
Detroit muscle-car mania is back.
For the first time since the Carter administration, three big Detroit brands, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge, all offer rear-wheel-drive coupes that boast a distinctively American blend of in-your-face styling and big horsepower numbers.
How big? Try a 444-horsepower Ford Mustang Boss 302, which can be ordered with a special "Laguna Seca" package that essentially makes it a street-legal race car. Or consider the forthcoming 2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1 that will deliver 550 horsepower from its supercharged V8. Meanwhile, Chrysler LLC offers a Dodge Challenger model with a 470-horsepower Hemi engine that can run from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under five seconds.
These monster engines are shoehorned into back-to-the-future body styles that telegraph the core target market for the cars: baby boomers who lusted for these cars in their teens and 20s, but settled for Japanese compacts, minivans and sport-utility vehicles. Equally important to Detroit marketers, though, is capturing the imagination of car enthusiasts who don't remember the '60s and '70s—they weren't born yet.
"It's the attitude of the customer," less than demographics, says Mustang brand manager Jim Owens, who has a customized Mustang of his own that packs 650 horsepower under the hood. It is an attitude that says, "Hey, look at me!" he adds.
For Detroit car makers that were struggling to survive just two years ago, the buzz generated by muscle cars provides a much-needed shot in the arm for their brands. The official Mustang Facebook page, for instance, has more than 1.5 million followers—about twice as many as the Ford Motor Co. Facebook page.
But similar to the mid-1970s, when fuel prices soared and new regulations forced auto makers to shift strategies, a cloud is gathering over the muscle-car party just as it is revs up. Amid gyrating gas prices, the Obama administration is pushing a proposal that could boost fuel-economy standards to 56 or 60 mpg by 2025, leaving muscle-car makers with some tough choices down the road.
The current revival "can last for a few more years until the fuel-economy standards become ever tougher," says retired GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, the patron of the Camaro's rebirth. To raise fuel economy, future muscle cars might feature the superefficient eight- or nine-speed transmissions beginning to appear in luxury cars, or have electric-hybrid systems, though these technologies would add thousands to the cost of the car, Mr. Lutz says.
High mileage standards could make V-8 engines an expensive rarity, says Jeff Schuster of the market research firm J.D. Power and Associates. But Mr. Schuster says muscle-car style could survive in more affordable cars that simply used smaller engines under the hood.
"You'd see V6 or even turbocharged four cylinders," he says. Buyers could get "a muscle shell, but not the muscle car."
For the time being, though, the new approach appears to be working. Sales of the Camaro and Challenger rose 13% and 10%, respectively, in June, outpacing growth in sales of all passenger cars, according to Autodata Corp. Mustang sales slipped 2%, but on average, customers paid more than $36,000 to buy one, up nearly 12% from a year earlier, according to data from AutoTrader.com.
"The performance per dollar was hard to beat," says Juan Barnett a 30-year-old Defense Department employee who drives a 412-horsepower, V8 Mustang GT around Washington, D.C., and maintains a blog for enthusiasts. Nostalgia for the late '60s Mustangs had little to do with his purchase, he says, since the Mustang GT is a fast, sporty car that can still accommodate a child seat for the baby he and his wife are expecting.
Car lovers of a certain age may like to reminisce about the glory days of American muscle, but buyers of today's muscle cars are getting better vehicles by every measure, beyond just room for a baby seat.
The 1967 Camaro Z28, for example, had a V-8 engine rated at 290 horsepower. That's less than the V6 version of the 2011 Camaro, rated at 312 horsepower and 29 mpg on the highway. About half of Mustangs and two-thirds of Camaros are rolling onto the street with efficient, but strikingly powerful V6 engines, as consumers hedge against high gas prices. Today's muscle cars also come with airbags, stability control and robust brakes, which were all lacking in the classics.
Chevrolet marketing executive John Fitzpatrick says Camaro buyers cluster in two age bands—20 to 30 years old, and 45 to 55.
"We definitely see more than a baby boomer audience," he says.
GM's successful tie-in with the popular "Transformer" movie series is one element of the auto maker's strategy for cultivating the next generation of enthusiasts. Chevy is launching a limited run "Bumblebee" Camaro, with a distinctive yellow paint job and bold black stripes, that looks like the Camaro that transforms into a fighting robot in the latest Transformers film.
Angela Naff of Henry, Va., says she bought her first Camaro in 1995. Now she's a collector and owns six of the new models, which she drives to gatherings at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina and other places where enthusiasts show off their cars and swap stories.
"It's just a passion," says Ms. Naff, a personal-fitness trainer who runs a website for Camaro fans. She keeps an eye out for Camaros with unusual colors or option packages to add to her collection. "They had an orange with white stripes," she says. "We jumped on that."
As for Dodge, the Challenger ran behind the Mustang and Camaro in sales years ago, and it does again today, selling about 3,300 a month, or less than half the Camaro's and Mustang's sales in June. Those sales figures have prompted speculation in the auto-industry press that the car and its strongly retro styling statement won't last.
Chrysler says it has worked to upgrade the car's performance, adding a new 305 horsepower V-6 engine that gets 27 mpg on the highway, up from 25 mpg for the previous V6. The Challenger SRT8's Hemi engine has a feature that shuts off four cylinders to save fuel on the highway, and the interior of the car has been reworked. Sales are up 14% so far this year.
And last year, Chrysler offered a "Furious Fuchsia" Challenger in a limited run of just 400 cars.
These low-volume variations of modern muscle cars have a shot at becoming collectors' items in 30 years, just as their 1960s and 1970s originals are today.
Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com
Big Engines, Throwback Looks Lure Baby Boomers and Twentysomethings; But Rising Fuel Prices and Regulations Loom
By JOSEPH B. WHITE at the Wall Street Journal
Detroit muscle-car mania is back.
For the first time since the Carter administration, three big Detroit brands, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge, all offer rear-wheel-drive coupes that boast a distinctively American blend of in-your-face styling and big horsepower numbers.
How big? Try a 444-horsepower Ford Mustang Boss 302, which can be ordered with a special "Laguna Seca" package that essentially makes it a street-legal race car. Or consider the forthcoming 2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1 that will deliver 550 horsepower from its supercharged V8. Meanwhile, Chrysler LLC offers a Dodge Challenger model with a 470-horsepower Hemi engine that can run from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under five seconds.
These monster engines are shoehorned into back-to-the-future body styles that telegraph the core target market for the cars: baby boomers who lusted for these cars in their teens and 20s, but settled for Japanese compacts, minivans and sport-utility vehicles. Equally important to Detroit marketers, though, is capturing the imagination of car enthusiasts who don't remember the '60s and '70s—they weren't born yet.
"It's the attitude of the customer," less than demographics, says Mustang brand manager Jim Owens, who has a customized Mustang of his own that packs 650 horsepower under the hood. It is an attitude that says, "Hey, look at me!" he adds.
For Detroit car makers that were struggling to survive just two years ago, the buzz generated by muscle cars provides a much-needed shot in the arm for their brands. The official Mustang Facebook page, for instance, has more than 1.5 million followers—about twice as many as the Ford Motor Co. Facebook page.
But similar to the mid-1970s, when fuel prices soared and new regulations forced auto makers to shift strategies, a cloud is gathering over the muscle-car party just as it is revs up. Amid gyrating gas prices, the Obama administration is pushing a proposal that could boost fuel-economy standards to 56 or 60 mpg by 2025, leaving muscle-car makers with some tough choices down the road.
The current revival "can last for a few more years until the fuel-economy standards become ever tougher," says retired GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, the patron of the Camaro's rebirth. To raise fuel economy, future muscle cars might feature the superefficient eight- or nine-speed transmissions beginning to appear in luxury cars, or have electric-hybrid systems, though these technologies would add thousands to the cost of the car, Mr. Lutz says.
High mileage standards could make V-8 engines an expensive rarity, says Jeff Schuster of the market research firm J.D. Power and Associates. But Mr. Schuster says muscle-car style could survive in more affordable cars that simply used smaller engines under the hood.
"You'd see V6 or even turbocharged four cylinders," he says. Buyers could get "a muscle shell, but not the muscle car."
For the time being, though, the new approach appears to be working. Sales of the Camaro and Challenger rose 13% and 10%, respectively, in June, outpacing growth in sales of all passenger cars, according to Autodata Corp. Mustang sales slipped 2%, but on average, customers paid more than $36,000 to buy one, up nearly 12% from a year earlier, according to data from AutoTrader.com.
"The performance per dollar was hard to beat," says Juan Barnett a 30-year-old Defense Department employee who drives a 412-horsepower, V8 Mustang GT around Washington, D.C., and maintains a blog for enthusiasts. Nostalgia for the late '60s Mustangs had little to do with his purchase, he says, since the Mustang GT is a fast, sporty car that can still accommodate a child seat for the baby he and his wife are expecting.
Car lovers of a certain age may like to reminisce about the glory days of American muscle, but buyers of today's muscle cars are getting better vehicles by every measure, beyond just room for a baby seat.
The 1967 Camaro Z28, for example, had a V-8 engine rated at 290 horsepower. That's less than the V6 version of the 2011 Camaro, rated at 312 horsepower and 29 mpg on the highway. About half of Mustangs and two-thirds of Camaros are rolling onto the street with efficient, but strikingly powerful V6 engines, as consumers hedge against high gas prices. Today's muscle cars also come with airbags, stability control and robust brakes, which were all lacking in the classics.
Chevrolet marketing executive John Fitzpatrick says Camaro buyers cluster in two age bands—20 to 30 years old, and 45 to 55.
"We definitely see more than a baby boomer audience," he says.
GM's successful tie-in with the popular "Transformer" movie series is one element of the auto maker's strategy for cultivating the next generation of enthusiasts. Chevy is launching a limited run "Bumblebee" Camaro, with a distinctive yellow paint job and bold black stripes, that looks like the Camaro that transforms into a fighting robot in the latest Transformers film.
Angela Naff of Henry, Va., says she bought her first Camaro in 1995. Now she's a collector and owns six of the new models, which she drives to gatherings at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina and other places where enthusiasts show off their cars and swap stories.
"It's just a passion," says Ms. Naff, a personal-fitness trainer who runs a website for Camaro fans. She keeps an eye out for Camaros with unusual colors or option packages to add to her collection. "They had an orange with white stripes," she says. "We jumped on that."
As for Dodge, the Challenger ran behind the Mustang and Camaro in sales years ago, and it does again today, selling about 3,300 a month, or less than half the Camaro's and Mustang's sales in June. Those sales figures have prompted speculation in the auto-industry press that the car and its strongly retro styling statement won't last.
Chrysler says it has worked to upgrade the car's performance, adding a new 305 horsepower V-6 engine that gets 27 mpg on the highway, up from 25 mpg for the previous V6. The Challenger SRT8's Hemi engine has a feature that shuts off four cylinders to save fuel on the highway, and the interior of the car has been reworked. Sales are up 14% so far this year.
And last year, Chrysler offered a "Furious Fuchsia" Challenger in a limited run of just 400 cars.
These low-volume variations of modern muscle cars have a shot at becoming collectors' items in 30 years, just as their 1960s and 1970s originals are today.
Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com
Friday, June 24, 2011
Safety First
Here is some sad news. Please if you're working on a car remember the following.
Always use jack stands, not just jacks.
When using jack stands use on a level, solid surface (no hills, no gravel/sand).
Certain dangerous jobs should not be tried by the amateur such as work on changing glass panes and removing the gas tank.
Read the safety section of your vehicle repair manual before undertaking a job for the first time or if it is the first time in a while.
SUV slips off jacks, kills man
By ANTHONY SIINO-Staff Intern Posted: 06/23/2011 01:10:59 AM PDT
SUV slips off jacks, kills man
By ANTHONY SIINO-Staff Intern Posted: 06/23/2011 01:10:59 AM PDT
The Chico Enterprise-Record
MINERAL — A Tehama County man died under the weight of his SUV while camping at Battle Creek Campground Friday.
Casey Ellsworth, Sr., 36, of Los Molinos, suffocated after his Mercury Mountaineer fell off its jacks while he was under it, said Sgt. Rod Daugherty of Tehama County Sheriff's Office. He was repairing the bearings and the inner seals of the rear wheels on a level shoulder of Highway 36 about a tenth of a mile from camp. He was a father to five children.
The vehicle's front wheels were chocked and it was raised on two jacks, one on the rear axle and the other near the rear bumper, Daugherty said. Somehow the 4,500-pound vehicle slipped off the supports.
"That's not something you come across too much," Daugherty said.
A passing motorist spotted his body and called the Sheriff's Office. No foul play is suspected.
Ellsworth was with his fiancé and her father before the accident, who helped him set up and secure the raised SUV, said Aaron Ellsworth of Paradise, his brother. Casey Ellsworth sent them into town to get parts and there was no reason for him to go back under the SUV without the parts.
"This whole past week has been a whole, total roller coaster for all of us," Aaron Ellsworth said.
His family is now struggling to find a way to handle the remains, as any Tehama County programs that could cover the costs only applied for Casey, not his family members footing the bill from Paradise.
"Even before this, we were all scraping bybarely," Aaron Ellsworth said.
A memorial fund to help pay for cremation has been set up at Sierra Central Credit Union by Leslee Libby, Casey Ellsworth's mother. The memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Magalia Pines Baptist Church. The fact Casey Ellsworth had no life insurance isn't helping the family, who didn't expect to cope with his loss any time soon.
"Most people prepare," Libby said. "I couldn't even prepare."
Fiery explosion during car repair burns three in Folsom
blindelof@sacbee.com (Bill Lindelof and Matt Kawahara)
MINERAL — A Tehama County man died under the weight of his SUV while camping at Battle Creek Campground Friday.
Casey Ellsworth, Sr., 36, of Los Molinos, suffocated after his Mercury Mountaineer fell off its jacks while he was under it, said Sgt. Rod Daugherty of Tehama County Sheriff's Office. He was repairing the bearings and the inner seals of the rear wheels on a level shoulder of Highway 36 about a tenth of a mile from camp. He was a father to five children.
The vehicle's front wheels were chocked and it was raised on two jacks, one on the rear axle and the other near the rear bumper, Daugherty said. Somehow the 4,500-pound vehicle slipped off the supports.
"That's not something you come across too much," Daugherty said.
A passing motorist spotted his body and called the Sheriff's Office. No foul play is suspected.
Ellsworth was with his fiancé and her father before the accident, who helped him set up and secure the raised SUV, said Aaron Ellsworth of Paradise, his brother. Casey Ellsworth sent them into town to get parts and there was no reason for him to go back under the SUV without the parts.
"This whole past week has been a whole, total roller coaster for all of us," Aaron Ellsworth said.
His family is now struggling to find a way to handle the remains, as any Tehama County programs that could cover the costs only applied for Casey, not his family members footing the bill from Paradise.
"Even before this, we were all scraping bybarely," Aaron Ellsworth said.
A memorial fund to help pay for cremation has been set up at Sierra Central Credit Union by Leslee Libby, Casey Ellsworth's mother. The memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Magalia Pines Baptist Church. The fact Casey Ellsworth had no life insurance isn't helping the family, who didn't expect to cope with his loss any time soon.
"Most people prepare," Libby said. "I couldn't even prepare."
Fiery explosion during car repair burns three in Folsom
blindelof@sacbee.com (Bill Lindelof and Matt Kawahara)
The Sacramento Bee
Three people, including a 6-year-old child, were burned in Folsom Monday night when a fire exploded during the removal of an SUV's gas tank.
Firefighters were called to the 100 block of Briarcliff Drive shortly after 9 a.m. When they arrived, firefighters found a Dodge Ram sport utility vehicle was ablaze, a fence was burning and a tree was engulfed in flames.
One man had suffered moderate to severe burns to his arms and chest, a second man had minor burns to his face and hands and the little boy had moderate to severe burns. All the victims were transported to the hospital.
Folsom police determined that the two men had been removing a gas take from the SUV when the fire ignited. The exact cause of the fire and resulting explosion has not been determined.
Three people, including a 6-year-old child, were burned in Folsom Monday night when a fire exploded during the removal of an SUV's gas tank.
Firefighters were called to the 100 block of Briarcliff Drive shortly after 9 a.m. When they arrived, firefighters found a Dodge Ram sport utility vehicle was ablaze, a fence was burning and a tree was engulfed in flames.
One man had suffered moderate to severe burns to his arms and chest, a second man had minor burns to his face and hands and the little boy had moderate to severe burns. All the victims were transported to the hospital.
Folsom police determined that the two men had been removing a gas take from the SUV when the fire ignited. The exact cause of the fire and resulting explosion has not been determined.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
VW opens Tennessee plant with new focus on quality
From the LA Times
Powered by LSN, Inc.
Story posted 2011.05.27 at 04:03 PM PDT
May 28, 2011
Reporting from Chattanooga, Tenn.-- Volkswagen, whose cars have been known to have nagging reliability problems, is hoping Passat sedans rolling out of its new $$1-billion factory here won't need a lift from the city's historical hallmark — tow trucks.
Nearly a century after claiming its fame as the birthplace of the wrecker, Chattanooga is again in the automotive spotlight as VW looks to regain traction in the U.S.
"We know what we have to do here, " said Hans-Herbert Jagla, who heads human resources at the factory. "Everyone should know that the customer is expecting a perfect car."
VW, the world's third-largest automaker, is looking to triple U.S. sales over the next seven years. But to reach that goal, it needs to overcome a troubled history.
Its previous effort to manufacture cars in the U.S. was an admitted debacle. Quality problems and slumping sales prompted VW to close its first U.S. factory in Westmoreland County, Pa., more than two decades ago.
It was a huge setback for the company that brought the iconic Beetle across the Atlantic, making VW America's first import darling.
VW has recovered some ground in recent years. The brand sold 256,830 vehicles last year, a 20% gain from 2009, according to Autodata Corp., but that was about half of what it sold during the boom years of the 1970s. Sales are up 17% through the first four months of this year.
VW continues to be plagued by quality problems, which is why Jagla said the automaker has been stressing high production standards to the 1,700 workers at the new factory. They are critical to the automaker's growth plan, he said.
The VW nameplate ranked 29th out of 34 brands in the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 reliability rankings of cars after three years of ownership. It ranked 31st out of 33 brands on the Power's 2010 initial quality survey of vehicles 3 months old.
"We have really tried to draw our lessons from the Westmoreland experience," said Frank Fischer, chief executive ofVolkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations.
Built on 1,400-acre complex east of town at the site of a former explosives factory, the plant opened this week with a different management structure than VW's previous factory.
Managers of the failed Pennsylvania factory closeted themselves in Detroit and were rarely present at the plant. This time, VW pulled in more than 200 company experts from operations around the world, including its high-end Audi and Bentley divisions, to work at the factory.
The Passat built in Chattanooga was designed specifically for the U.S. market and won't be sold in Europe. It has an additional 3 inches of rear seat room. It also comes standard with options Americans expect such Bluetooth and dual-zone climate control. The base European engine produces 122 horsepower, contrasted with the U.S. model, which starts at 170 horsepower, providing the type of merging and freeway acceleration American drivers often equate with a sense of safety and security.
The car, equipped with a manual transmission, will start at about $$20,000. Automatic transmission models and versions with larger engines, including a turbocharged diesel with expected highway fuel economy of 43 mpg and a driving range of 800 miles, will start at about $$26,000.
VW needs the vehicle to be a success. An earlier Passat was once the automaker's star performer, selling more than 96,000 vehicles in 2002 and accounting for more than 28% of the company's sales volume, according to Edmunds.com. Sales dwindled to less than 12,500 last year.
Initial plans call for the factory to produce about 56,000 vehicles during its first year of operation, although VW officials say the number could change.
Growing volume will be key for Volkswagen to meet its target of U.S. sales — including its Audi division — of more than 1 million vehicles per year by 2018. It wants to reach a U.S. market share of 6% in that time frame. Currently, the company, including Audi, has annual sales of 360,179, accounting for 3% of U.S. auto sales.
"This is VW's first run at making cars tailored to the American tastes and at parity in price and size with the Toyota Camry andHonda Accord, the cars that dominate that segment." said Bill Visnic, an analyst with auto information company Edmunds.com.
Early reviews of the Passat credit VW for increasing the size and reducing the price from previous versions. Visnic, however, said its conservative styling won't draw much attention.
"The Passat is not a breakout car for VW and somewhere along the line they are going to need some breakout products if they are going to reach those sales goals," he said.
VW sees building cars in the U.S. as an important strategy. The new factory has the capacity to produce 150,000 vehicles a year and there's plenty of room to expand at the sprawling site.
"Localization reduces vulnerability of extended supply chains, and being closer to the consumer allows for a faster response to trends and demands," said Efraim Levy, a Standard & Poor's equity analyst.
It also limits exposure to currency exchange rate swings.
The heavy reliance on parts imported from Europe and unfavorable exchange rates contributed to the previous factory's demise, Fischer said. Now, about 85% of the content of the American Passat will come from NAFTA countries, which eliminates much of he currency risk, he said.
The plant may also benefit from its location along the southern tier of a corridor known as auto alley for its concentration of car factories. It has good highway connections to a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama and a BMW factory in South Carolina. Fischer said the German automakers tend to share suppliers, including a company that stamps sheet steel into car body panels.
VW officials also won't have to go far to be reminded about improving the quality its cars. A few miles from the factory is the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame, where a display pays homage to Ernest Holmes Sr., the inventor of the tow truck.
"An auto plant is the holy grail of economic development," said Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield. "This is a wave that will carry us forward for a decade."
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Story posted 2011.05.27 at 04:03 PM PDT
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