Johnson City Press from Johnson City, Tennessee • 3

9 JOHNSON CITY PRESS Monday December 26 1988 Page 3 Road test passed by tanker The Associated Press MEMPHIS A roadside inspection the day before a propane tanker truck exploded on an in- terstateLkilling nine peopleL found the truck was free of defects a federal investigator said The National Transportation Safety Board released the initial findings of its investigation into Fridays crash of the tractor trailer truck on Interstate 240 in Memphis The track cleared an inspection Thursday by the Arkansas Le- Sartment of Transportation said ames Burnett head of the NTSB investigation The driver Randall Benson 29 of West Memphis Ark was killed in the crash Burnett said Benson was thoroughly familiar with the route along the accident site and had traveled it many times before Betfson who worked for -Wooten Transports Inc was cer tified as medically fit to drive hazardous materials and had also Eassed a drug test a year before said His driving records from Memphis and Arkansas show that ne had onlv two minor traffic accidents and no moving violations Burnett said "Obviously something happened Were not ready to say the driver lost control It could have been something else he said Bensons truck skidded into an overpass and punctured the tank which then shot off the trailer and landed in a residential area Burnett said the investigation is expected to take about nine months to complete Gatliering records regarding the investigation was hampered because many offices were closed over the holiday weekend Burnett said He said investigators will try to piece together Bensons activities up to three days before the accident which occurred on an interchange that is recognized as one of the most dangerous in the state It is slated 109 million improvement A witness whom Burnett would not identify only as a military man reported that the truck was traveling about 30 mph on the ramp posted as a 25 mph zone The man said he saw the truck roll over as it rounded the curve Benson was hauling 9511 gallons of liquid propane he nad picked up from Sun Oil Co in West Memphis en route to Home-gas Inc in Ellendale east of Memphis The rig was approved by tne Arkansas Liquid Petroleum Gas Board before Benson left Burnett said Funeral services are scheduled Tuesday for a Vicksburg Miss woman and her father-in-law who were killed in the explosion Tina Warren Wiles 30 and her father-in-law Warner Ray Wiles 70 were among the eight people who died as a result of the blast and fire following the accident A ninth person died in a separate accident in the traffic jam that resulted from the crash authorities said Memorial services for Tina Warren Wiles and Warner Ray Wiles are scheduled for 10 am Tuesday at Frayser-Trinity Presbyterian Church in Vicksburg She was an employee at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant in Port Gibson Wiles was a retired employee of the DuPont Co Memphis police said the Wiles car was headed south on the interstate and was hit by the gigantic fireball that erupted from the explosion Police said they believe Tina Wiles was driving the 1987 Nissan station wagon when the explosion occurred toll is demolished by an Saturday in the of Brentwood James inspects damage Franklin man searches of his bedroom and a attempts to salvage home (AP LaserPhotos) JOT A -tt IJJ a1 1 11 -rxff Ui 4 fwr V' 4 -p 'i-0 lLv V'71 fi ft i VI it x- I'SLtJA 4 LV iy rvX A A A -w vy h'TT1 4 k' Wx Vv 5 x- -Ti 'Sw vt 4 swsK: r-sr-Jf 35S yx 'V 'v AC V- i Si'l XS yix -i 4 j-? AXA iL TV- i 1 I ft "MA i1 A I 1 1 it Twister Clockwise a building early morning tornado Nashville suburb Greene of Brentwood done to a plane a through the rubble Brentwood resident property from his 1 -) 1 Cw Tl fTT' rs V7fe a rw' eaiwiiiii i IT vis 1 5T-J ti mu fSAZt fV hi wc' tX 4t i i lx Vi Ar? -W vw iJ -'K' scZ2MSs my Communism making last gasps in Poland native says thanks to independent farmers the environment is a -disaster Water is the worst area with up to 49 percent of surface water in Poland declared unfit for even industrial use Air quality is better than that in neighboring Czechoslovakia where burning of high-sulphur soft coal makes it impossible to see the ground from an airplane One bright spot in the Polish political scene is Minister of Industry Wilczek who closed a highly polluting aluminum plant and is investigating several others "He hopes that if the opposition takes over in Poland he will still be minister of industry Fonberg said Fonbergs optimism for the future in Poland is not darkened by what the Soviet Union did to Solidarity in 1981 when the trade union was outlawed to prevent an invasion by Russian troops "Today the Soviet embassy cultivates the opposition" Fonberg said "The electricity is in the air The change is coming If I were the New York Times 1 would send my reporters to Poland Of course they must learn the Polish lan-guage first" dividuals are not free to pursue any enterprise they wish "There is even discussion of making part of Warsaw a tax-free zone like Hong Kong in order to encourage trade Fonberg Baid Poland is unique among the Soviet Unions client States because it is the only country behind the Iron Curtain to have an organized opposition What has changed in the past year is the recognition by the government that such opposition exists "Before tney would call in someone like Lech Walesa for a conference but would go to great pains to say he is only a private person and not a representative of any opposition organization Fonberg said "But shortly after I left there was a public debate on Polish television between Lech Walesa representing Solidarity and Miodowicz the head of the official state trade union And I have heard that Walesa beat him badly Yet in the seven years of its underground existence a new generation of Poles grew up who are now forming their own opposition forces Most original is the-Orange Initiative a student where between 500000 and 2 million bodieg are buried in the graves They are the remains of people executed by the KGB secret police after World War II Under the Stalinist era the KGB was given quotas for finding "enemies of the people This was the Gulag era that is central to the novels of Alexandr Solzhenitsin "The reaction against these hideous practices is really strong in the Soviet Union Fohberg said Polands reaction is even stronger The radio broadcast Fonberg heard while driving into town was saying that the stock of Lenin leader of the Soviet revolution was going down while that of Gen Josef Pilsudski who defeated the Red Army in 1920 and prevented its expansion into Poland at that time was going up Reason: a square in Warsaw was being re-named for Pilsudski and the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk was being closed as uneconomical While the Polish economy is improving with more items on the shelves in state stores and more fresh produce available group which holds mock demonstrations without a permit in favor of the most Draconian aspects of Polish society "It is a great embarrassment to the government to show on television demonstrators being clubbed gassed and beaten by the militia while carrying signs and chanting We love our militia Fonberg said One such demonstration was at the statue of Felix Dzierzynski founder of the feared Cheka secret police While under attack from the militia the demonstrators chanted "Take an example from our great patriot Dzierzynski the symbol of the good militiaman Fonberg said the former illegal Polish press is now sold openly on the street comers but is no longer poles apart from the official Soviet press Up until recently the Polish government censored some items that appeared in Soviet newspapers and the East Germans will not let some Soviet newspapers into their country One of the hottest news subjects in the Soviet Union is the discovery of mass graves in the Ukraine and Byelorussia Some By James Brooks Jonesborough Bureau "I wonder what those idiots will think of next the Polish radio announcer said about the countrys Communist government While taking the taxi into Warsaw from the airport last month Ignacy Fonberg Jonesborough heard the announcer make the editorial comment which would likely not be heard on an American newscast and was unheard pf in Poland until recently Fonberg annually takes an autumn trip back to his homeland but since the trade union Solidarity was banned in 1981 there has been little to rejoice about other than the annual renewing of family ties This year it was different 1 think communism is making its last gasps in Poland in my opinion Fonberg Baid "What is happening is a 19th century form of capitalism with many people involved with small-scalo service and manufacturing while still on their government salary Such examples of individual initiative were still illegal when Fonberg visited in November but i i I i I I I 11! i Ignacy Fonberg will become legal next Sunday Far from discouraging capitalism the government is even encouraging capital investment from abroad so long as the investment is a minimum of $50000 But iji-.