The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 24

D8 Thursday, March 21, 1985 San Francisco Examiner Mansion survivor tells of ordeal; SacramentoState Raley's sister, Kathy, testified thai Raley came into their parents Sari Jose house and nlaved MonODOlv from 1 Air-bag measure clears first hurdle It would affect cars sold after April '89 II jyy Uy By Steven A. Capps Examiner staff writer SACRAMENTO A measure that could force automakers to Install air bags in all cars sold in California after 1989 cleared its first committee, following testimony by accident victims, emergency room doctors and insurance executives. The bill, by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, D-San Francisco, also would require California motorists to wear seat belts after 1986. To highlight his sponsorship of the measure, Brown climbed into a $45,000 Mercedes Benz parked at the foot of the Capitol steps yesterday to demonstrate an air bag. The safety device, designed to inflate on impact to cushion occupants, is offered as an option on some Mercedes-Benz models.

The speaker put on a pair of blue overalls, strapped himself into the driver's seat and a Mercedes-Benz representative pushed a switch to inflate the air bag. There was a puff of inert gas. survived," the Assembly speaker said. "There was no more smoke than somebody smoking in an automobile." After the demonstration, a crowd gathered around the car sang "Happy Birthday" to Brown, who turned 51 'yesterday. The lighthearted demonstration was in sharp contrast to the testimony a few minutes later inside the Capitol.

Annette Paluska, a Santa Monica resident who suffered brain damage in a 1980 head-on collision, said she had searched In vain for a car equipped with an air bag. Paluska, who walked to the podium with the aid of a cane, said that in the mid-1970s she could find only a few cars with air bags and they were all large sedans. General Motors sold about 11,000 large sedaas equipped with air bags between 1973 and 1976 before it stopped installing the safety device. "1 couldn't get an air bag in my car," she said. That infuriated me because I knew small cars could get in car accidents, too." She said she was wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident but that the impact tore it out of the floor.

"When the paramedics found me, they thought I was dead," she said. "Heavy sports and dancing are out of my life forever," she told the com-' mittee. "One thing has not changed in my life I still want an air bag and still cannot get one." Brown's bill would require motorists to wear seat belts. Those found not wearing belts would face a firstof-fense fine of $20, and $50 fines for future violations. Its most controversial provision could force automobile companies to install air bags in cars sold in California after April 1, 1989.

The bill is a reaction to an order issued by Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole. Dole has said that unless states adopt mandatory seat-belt laws by April 1, 1989, she will mandate passive restraints such as air bags. She will do so unless two-thirds of the American public is living under such laws. Although Brown's bill would mandate seat-belt use, it does not meet the technical requirements of Dole's order. A competing bill that does meet Dole's standards is now awaiting action in the Senate.

Brown said yesterday that Dole's order "is clearly a work product of the automobile manufacturers." Auto manufacturers have opposed mandatory air bags, warning of high costs, imperfect technology and increased liability for equipment failures. They are campaigning for state seat-belt laws. Byron Bloch, a Los Angeles consultant on automobile safety, testified yesterday that an air bag would only add about $165 to the price of a car. "It's about equivalent to getting a nice Associated Press SPEAKER WILLIE BROWN LAUGHS DURING COUNTDOWN, ABOVE Then he reacts, below, when explosion inflates safety device From Page Bl ied. "She was screaming.

It was echoing through the entire house." McKenna said her friend's cries stopped after about 10 minutes and Raley ran to her, sweating and breathing heavily. She said he led her to a dark hallway and stabbed her in the stomach. Then, she said, he spent 5 or 10 minutes inflicting 34 more stab wounds and beating her with his wooden night stick. "I fell down," she said. "He hit me in the head many times.

I was just saying, Tm dead I'm She said her body was limp. "He rolled me onto this carpet and started dragging me to the car," she recalled. McKenna said Raley dumped her into his car trunk, where Grinsell already lay. Both girls were conscious and managed to exchange a few words. Hours later, she said, they arrived in a garage, where he let them lie on the concrete floor.

McKenna said her left eye was swollen shut and she vomited blood. For a while, she said, Raley appeared "sympathetic," rubbing her injured arm and giving them a blanket. But then he left and returned with a hunting rifle and pointed it at them. Suddenly a car drove up outside the garage and Raley threw the girls back into the trunk and left them alone "for hours," McKenna said. An oasis in the From Page Bl attract so many people that their sheer activity will deter evildoers.

Carlisle also likes to recall it was the neighborhood's senior citizens who advised architects against putting in plants large enough to provide hiding places for muggers. Surrounding the park site is a 6-foot-high fence and gates features specifically requested by Mayor Fein-stein, according to Carlisle intended to keep out night visitors. The park will be locked after dark, on the assumption that trouble will be less like ly to occur if criminals and their prey are both kept out. Even Boeddeker Park's benches are designed for security. Intended to discourage transients from using them as beds, their arm rests are stationed just far apart enough to seat four people, yet too close together to allow anyone but a midget a comfortable sleep.

Lighting will play a role, too. Twin-lamped Victorian lighting standards, containing 175-watt bulbs, will be stationed every 40 feet. Livingston says a Recreation and Park Department staff member will RATE versus the automobile industry." Loren Smith, representing automobile dealers, was one of the few to testify against the bill. He said the industry favors a mandatory seat-belt law but is not ready to begin installing air bags. "You're talking about technology that is in the making but is not here yet," he said.

As to offering air bags as an option, he said that then "only a person who can afford a car with air bags will be protected." He said seat belts are much more effective in protecting accident victims, and air bags only provide another 5 percent margin of safety. Fear of prosecution spurred sudden Kesterson decision said, Raley appeared normal and even made popcorn for the players. McKenna said Raley did not speak to them when he returned to the car. He drove a long distance and then tossed them into a ravine Grinsell first, she said. A jogger, Mike Masinter, came up-; on them on Silver Creek Road the next morning.

He testified that both girls were conscious and able to talk when he sent for authorities. Raley's court-appointed Bryan Shechmeister, tried to show that questionable medical treatment may have contributed to GrinseU's death. Records show she was con-' scious when brought to Santa Theresa Hospital's emergency room 18 hours. or so after the attack. Surgeon Joseph Brozda said sell died as he operated on her, but he said nothing could have saved her be-cause she had lost too much blood and her body was too cold.

Shechmeister acknowledged that implicating the hospital would not ex- onerate Raley from the murder charge. But he said it may persuade a jury to reject the death penalty. Municipal Court Judge Leon Fox, who presided over the hearing, set April 1 for Raley to be arraigned in' preparation for his trial. Tenderloin be on constant duty, unlike Wino Park, where there was no overseer. The park cost about $3,250,000, in-eluding $2 million in constructions costs, and is intended to serve a popu-lation of about 20,000.

A third of them will be senior citizens and another i third, Southeast Asian refugees. Most live, cramped, in the district's many efficiency apartments. Tables for playing cards or picnick-6 ing are stationed under wisteria-plant-ed arbors. "This will be very different from Wino Park," said architect Royston. A- CLASSIFIED MARKETPLACE We make it happen for you! 777-7777 'A NEED CREDIT? I CAN KELP! Gel Credit Card, Remove Negative Itemi Irom your Credit Report Fast Results, Get a atari.

Call 24 mt. COFFMAN ASSOC. CALL 982-1122 BROKER 2400 Sycamore Dr. Suite ID, Antioch 94509 YIELD (IT) the Bay. RLIC 0.S8 ,030 30 Examiner news services WASHINGTON Government attorneys were so concerned that a U.S.

-water agency official, involved in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge contamination problem, could be prosecuted for a crime that they recommended he fend for himself and advised him to retain his own attorney. The recommendation last Thursday so enraged Assistant Secretary of Interior Robert Broadbent that he stalked down to the office of Interior's top man, Donald Hodel, to complain. LThe resulting internal crisis, sources said, is what led the department Friday to order a shut down of the Kesterson reservoir, a decision that stunned Congress and threatens to bankrupt farmers on 42,000 acres in the western San Joaquin Valley. It could imperil as much as 1.5 million acres of iriigated agriculture in the vjUley. "This was a decision made in pan- Rep.

Charles "Chip" Pashayan, R- Fresno, said yesterday. Asked about his knowledge of the Interior meeting, Pashayan said that "my understanding is those remarks were made, and had a bearing on, not only the substance, but the timing of the decision." He criticized the decision as legally questionable, saying if carried out it "could well be a lethal blow" to farmers. Meanwhile, Hodel said today that Interior Department attorneys are "cautiously optimistic" that a short-term agreement to supply water to Kesterson area farms will be completed by late this week or early next week. "Negotiations are going on," Hodel said, noting he did not know what the terms of such an arrangement would be and does not know the reason department lawyers are hopeful about a Herb Caen stereo radio in your car," he said. "And that radio won't save your life." Bloch said the auto industry is afraid it will be held liable for air bags that might not operate in a case of an accident, adding: "It appears to me that the issue boils down to insurance the Kesterson crisis, government attorneys suggested that Houston be told to get his own private attorney because of potential criminal liability, according to several sources.

That recommendation is said to have drawn an angry remark from Broadbent, that he would not see one of his men dumped over the side. Broadbent refused to comment on the meeting, but one source who was tlier- said this account is "not too far off." Internal department memos indi cate that as early as November 1983 Interior was warned by the Fish and Wildlife Service that allowing contam ination at Kesterson could violate the migratory bird treaty. Last month, Regional Solicitor David Lindgren, an associate of Hous ton's, said: "We don't have any evidence at this point that there Is a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. We have no information of any birds that have died from selenium." But on Sept. 28, 1984, memos show, Fish and Wildlife's Richard Stroud diagnosed selenium toxicosis as the cause of death of Kesterson birds he had examined.

Selenium is a natural element leached out of the soil in the valley by irrigation and brought to Kesterson by thedrainage system. Farmers on the west side of the valley need to drain their land because there Is an impermeable clay barrier under the topsoil that would force irrigation water back to the surface ithout drainage. The San Luis Drain, which empties into Kesterson, originally was designed to continue to San Francisco Bay via the Delta, but stopped 100 miles short because money ran out and because of opposition from environmentalists. The wildlife refuge, which Is a closed system and cannot be flushed, has as a result remained the terminus for the drain. hike gas tax representatives of local governments and business groups who testified in support of the bill.

They repeatedly complained about the deterioration of local streets, and the lack of state funds to maintain or repair them. One Los Gatos resident said it was a matter of life and death. She said she represented about 4,000 people who had asked for an overpass over Highway 17 to be built near her property. "We're here because we're concerned about surviving," said Alrie Middlebrook. Foran was the author of a 1981 measure that raised the state's gas tax by 5 cents to a total of 9 cents but said yesterday the increase has not raised the amount of money anticipated.

Three-fifths of the money raised by the 5ent increase would go to local streets and roads, while the rest would go to mass transit systems. Choose the term that's just right for you, along with the high interest you deserve. Investment Accounts TERM settlement. "It has not reached my desk." Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Merced, has said that unless Interior agrees within days to continue water deliveries to affected farms, banks would refuse to finance growers who are ready to plant crops.

The Federal Land Bank Association of Fresno, a major agricultural lender, said yesterday it won't process any new loan applications until the water issue is settled. Water users and representatives of the Department of Interior reportedly reached a tentative agreement Monday to keep the water flowing to the farmers for one more year. During that time, the growers would find an alternate disposal area for the contaminated drain water. The possible solution, which could keep the drain open for another six months, reportedly Is now being reviewed by policy officials and attorneys at the Department of Justice. The man at the center of this controversy is David Houston, regional director in Sacramento for the U.S.

Bureau of Reclamation, a powerful agency with authority over western water supplies. Houston did not return phone calls yesterday. Houston has until recently been the point man for the government in the Kesterson case, hich involves the poisoning of waterfowl by agricultural drainage water flowing into the wildlife refuge. Critics have charged that Interior, which oversees Reclamation, has known for some time that birds were endangered by the selenium-contaminated drain water, in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but did nothing about it. As Interior was getting ready for a congressional hearing tomorrow on "Nobody enjoys voting to raise taxes," he said.

"We'd like our colleagues in local governments to step forward and be counted." Sen. Wadie Deddeh, D-Bonita, agreed and added, "I'm not necessarily enamored by this piece of legislation myself but something needs to be done." Even Foran admitted a tax bill is never popular. He opened the hearing by saying, "Perhaps only a crazy person introduces a tax bill." Later he admitted that "if you put this bill to a referendum it would be defeated. Nobody wants to pay taxes. Foran said he would bring the measure up for a vote late this month.

If it were to pass the Senate Transportation Committee, it would be heard next in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Tuesday's hearing drew two dozen 0 1 9.6 10 12mo. 'mo. Senate panel stalls on bill to io chnSi rlv withdrawal penalties apply Interest compounded and paid monthly Additions may be permitted during first by check or credited to your account. year without extension of maturity date.

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all about By Steven A. Capps Examiner staff writer SACRAMENTO Sen. John For-an, telling colleagues that "only a crazy person introduces a tax bill," has delayed a vote on his measure to increase the state's gas tax by another nickel a gallon. Foran, DSan Francisco, took the bill before the Senate Transportation Committee this week. Most speakers favored SB290, hich would raise the gas tax to 14 cents a gallon from the current 9 cents to finance road repai" and mass transit But after three, hours of testimony, committee members said they were not prepared to vote for the bill.

Sen. Robert Beverly, R-Manhattan Beach, pointed out that some local governments such as the Los Angeles City Council have not yet voiced an opinion on Foran's bill. FEDERAL The SAN CALL YOUR NEAREST FRANCISCO FEDERAL SAVINGS OFFICE Consult the Yellow Pages.