Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 3

Daily Press. Monday. Sept. 26. 1983 Bursting bottles in Hampton leave no answers ager of the Royal Crown bottling plant in Norfolk, said he was unaware of the four incidents and that he could "only guess" as to how they happened.

"The age of the glass might have been a factor," Ashby said. He said there "definitely" has not been an increase of reported bottle explosions recently and could not recall when the last such report had come to his attention. The grocers who sold the exploding colas reported no other complaints, nor did they experi- ence any explosions in their stores last month. Injuries from exploding soft drink bottles have been a continuing problem, however. In 1975, for example, testimony before a federal government hearing estimated that 32,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms the previous year for injuries related to carbonated soft drink bottles.

After hearings that stretched over several years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission decided to allow the Na- nearest Royal Crown bottler, in Norfolk, and told someone there that a bottle had burst apart at its base while in a carton on her kitchen counter. Mrs. Ross said the person to whom she spoke, who identified himself as a night manager, could offer no explanation. Later, she talked with her sister-in-law and two friends, and each told her they'd had almost identical experiences with Royal Crown bottles within a few days of each other.

Steve Ashby, general man injury settlement was $510,000 has placed warnings on the caps at the request of some soft drink companies. Harry Korab, a spokesman for the National Soft Drink Association, said it would be too expensive for bottlers to put warning labels on bottles when the margin of profit per bottle is often less than 1 cent and improved technology is on the brink of eliminating all danger of improperly attached caps. The cap that injured Ms. Chisman in York County was a twist-off steel crown, which was invented and is manufactured by Crown, Cork Seal Co. of Philadelphia.

The company's general counsel, Richard Krzyzanowski, said the Chisman case is the only one he's aware of in which a person suffered eye injury from the crown cap, which is similar to the old-style bottle cap that is pried off by an opener. "It was absolutely a freak accident. I think there was a de- num twist-off caps are applied to carbonated soft drink bottles each year. ALCOA instructs bottlers on how to apply the aluminum blanks to the bottles so that a tight-fitting thread is rolled against the molded thread of the bottle. If the threads do not match tightly, the cap can break loose under the pressure up to 60 pounds per square inch soft drink bottles contain.

A trend toward use of plastic bottles, which can contain greater pressures, increases the danger of cap blow-offs, said George J. Greene, a Houston-based consulting engineer who specializes in consumer product accident investigations. But Greene said ALCOA currently is test-marketing in Alabama a plastic twist-off cap, which he said is virtually accident-proof. Greene has urged the Consumer Product Safety Commis- Smithfield woman shot tional Soft Drink Association to devise voluntary industry standards for the manufacture of bottles and the bottling of soft drinks. The standards for bottle manufacturing were accepted in 1977, but the others, for the process of filling and capping the bottles, are still under review, said Harry Korab, the association's technical director.

While scores of lawsuits are reportedly pending alleging injuries from twist-off bottle caps, comparatively few suits claim feet in the bottle," Krzyzanowski said. Industry spokesman Korab said recent improvements in aluminum capping technology new cap designs and automated inspection methods will reduce "dramatically" the number of blow-offs. Yet, at a meeting earlier this month of the Voluntary Standards Committee (composed of representatives from government agencies and the soft drink industry), a proposal to require automated cap inspection equipment was rejected as inferior to the traditional method of visual inspections. Local grocers say they're aware of very few bottle cap blow-offs and that even fewer have occurred in the past several years. Lynn Patterson, buyer for the LouSmith Supermarket chain, said he's "never known" of a recall of bottles with defective caps.

said she was doing "fairly well," although an official condition report was not available at press time. Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Deputy C. L. Arney said the woman was shot once in the left side of the head with a .22 cali would have to charge prices so high it would be unable to compete with foreign cruise lines, Lambert said. While the AFL-CIO opposes Lambert's plan to "re-flag" the Countess and the Princess as American vessels, two other labor unions support it.

The Seafarers International Union and District 1 of the Marine Engineers Benevolence Association favor granting the exemption because the two ships are expected to employ over 1,000 seamen. Unemployment among merchant seamen is about 50 percent, Lambert said. While re-flagging the Cunard ships could create jobs in the short run, it could eliminate more jobs in the long run, opponents of the plan say. If Cruise America is granted an exception, United States Cruises Inc. will also want one, said Harry Burroughs, spokesman for Rep.

Jack Fields of Texas. Fields' district includes part of Texas' shipbuilding Gulf coast. United States Cruises plans to hire a Tacoma, shipyard to renovate the American passenger liner United States, Burroughs said. The United States is to be converted from a passenger liner to a luxury cruise ship. SMITHFIELD A 21-year-old woman was shot in the head Sunday night in her home on Griffin Lane near the Thomas Park community.

The victim, Pamela Newby, was taken to Riverside Hospital in Newport News, where a nurse nu a mi a. a. 15 injuries from exploding bottles. This is because of the greater difficulty in establishing blame, said George J. Greene a Houston-based professional engineer who specializes in consumer injury investigations.

Greene said that once a bottle explodes, it is almost impossible to tell whether it was weakened during the manufacturing process or in its handling afterward. Nearly 24,000 people in the United States were treated in hospital emergency rooms in 1981 for injuries received from either carbonated soft drink bottle glass or cap blow-offs, according to the latest estimates compiled in a Consumer Product Safety Commission survey. Not all of the glass injuries were from exploding bottles, commission staff member Nancy Johnston said; the estimate includes all types of soft drink bottle glass injuries and is not broken down into categories. Information provided by the National Soft Drink Association warns that carbonation pressure increases if the bottles are heated or agitated. A slight bottle defect, caused during manufacture or by chipping the glass, can weaken it belo the tolerance needed to contain even standard pressures.

While plastic bottles can contain greater pressures and have not been known to explode, they are considered more dangerous in cap blow-offs because of the greater pressures. Industry spokesman Korab said that cap blow-offs and explosions are virtually non-existent with beer bottles, because of the lower pressure in those bottles. ber handgun, which was recovered at the scene. Arney said late Sunday he was still interviewing witnesses to the shooting and that he had not yet charged anyone. The shooting was reported shortly after 9 p.m.

But if Cruise America is granted an exemption, United States Cruises will seek an exemption of its own to refit the United States in a lower cost foreign shipyard, he said. Lines planning similar renovations for the ships Santa Rosa and Monterey can be expected to follow suit. And a Houston-based cruise line planning to hire American yards to build two ships for cruising the Gulf of Mexico may be convinced it should turn to cheaper, foreign yards, he said. "If everybody who wants an exception gets one, pretty soon the exceptions will outweigh the rule" and the law will be useless, Simpkins said. When that happens, American shipping and shipbuilding will be quickly undercut by foreigners, he said.

In response, Lambert said "the opposition is a smokescreen." An exception for Cruise America will not automatically lead to exceptions for other companies, he said. And an exception for Cruise America "hurts nobody. Nobody stands anything to lose. If we're right (about the cruise market), everybody stands to gain," he said. McCABE CO.

229-1499 ir it it By MATHEW PAUST Investigative Team Writer Returnable 16-ounce Royal Crown Cola bottles burst in four Hampton homes in the same week last monthf and nobody seems to know why. No one was injured in the explosions, and only one of the cola customers was concerned enough to complain to the local Mrs. Hubert C. Ross said she became concerned only after finding out about the other incidents. She said she called the Highest Continued from Page 13 ALCOA spokeswoman Kathleen Buechle said her company's 100-suit estimate has been "a fluid number over the past several years," with existing suits being settled as new ones are filed.

The largest settlement paid in a bottle-cap injury lawsuit known to the American Trial Lawyers Association and the Bureau of National Standards is $510,000. That amount was agreed to this summer in the case of a 17-year-old Mount Holly, N.J., girl who claimed she was injured in a cap blow-off. ALCOA, a co-defendant in that case, paid $20,000. The other defendants, Canada Dry a subsidiary bottling company and the wholesale distributor, agreed to pay the rest over a 20-year period. Industry estimates of the number of cap blow-offs are about 1 per 100 million bottles.

An estimated 7 billion alumi Frumerie (right) looks at old fWagon' By RANDOLPH P. SMITH Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS Walter E. Frumerie was a quartermaster on the bridge of the USS Langley when nine Japanese bombers flew into position over the ship on Feb. 27, 1942. The 29-year-old collier, which had been converted into a seaplane tender, was no match against the high-altitude enemy bombers.

The ship's 3-inch anti-aircraft guns could not reach the bombers hovering 25,000 feet over the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carri- er. "They were very accurate," recalled Frumerie, who now lives in Jacksonville, Fla. The Langley was 60 miles south of Tjilatjap, Java, when she was attacked by the Japanese. The Langley was on a crucial mission, carrying 32 P-40 fighter Planners to SURRY The county Planning Commission will discuss a proposal to build apartments for the elderly at L- P.

Jackson Elementary School during its monthly meeting tonight. inn uv rcai ii ir rmur 1HP I VJ U.S. shipping troubled rmm sion to require that consumers be warned of the possibility of cap blow-offs. "For years I have begged ALCOA to place a warning label on the upper neck of the soft drink bottle, stating to the effect, 'Danger contents under pressure always point away from face. Cap may blow off at any time, especially while the petition says.

The commission has told Greene it is studying his request. Greene suggests that if ALCOA merely recommended in writing that soft drink companies using its cap place the warning on the bottles, that would protect ALCOA from liability and place the burden on the soft drink companies. Ms. Buechle, the ALCOA spokeswoman, said it's her company's position that it cannot require soft drink companies to place warnings on bottles. She said the aluminum firm a to.

jflswl proximately 50 yards from the Langley to the destroyers. Nearly 200 of the Langley's crew died. But misfortune did not end for the Langley's survivors, who were transferred to the USS Pecos, an oil tanker. The Pecos was attacked by the Japanese a day later and 500 more lives were lost. Bates and Frumerie were among 12 survivors of the sinkings who gathered with about 70 other Langley crew members for a reunion banquet Saturday night.

They came together to pay homage to the converted collier nicknamed "Covered Wagon" after a wooden flight deck was fitted over the length of the ship in 1922, making it the Navy's first aircraft carrier. It was the third annual meeting of the Langley's crewmem-bers. Jones said the commission must look into the health and safety regulations for converting the school into apartments. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the county courthouse.

Staff phofo by HERB BARNES photos with Earl Wigg (kneeling) and Harry Mayfield. veterans reunite Continued from Page 13 open, we will lose the domestic market for ships. It could kill American shipyards," he said. The American shipping industry is in trouble. "The United States can't compete with foreign countries" in shipping, said Ricardo Ratti, staff counsel for a House of Representatives Merchant Marine subcommittee.

High shipbuilding and operating costs have priced the United States out of world competition. "The only thing left to us is the United States coastal trade," Ratti said. And the only thing that enables American shippers and shipbuilders to survive in domestic trade is that everyone else is excluded by the Jones Act, he said. "I'm a supporter of the Jones Act," Lambert said in Washington last week, where he went to lobby for an exemption from the law for Cruise America. "I wish we could build our ships in a U.S.

yard." But American shipbuilding costs are too high and the time it would take to build the ships Cruise America wants is too long, he said. American shipyards would charge $250 million to $400 million and take three to five years to build a cruse ship comparable to either of the British ships, Lambert said. To pay for American-built ships, Cruise America Lines Brighten A Hospital Room! Send A Balloon Bouquet DELIVERED $1 fT95 A Dozen and a half J. v-l balloons Williamsburg jstm 229-7255 planes from Australia to Allied forces defending Java. Lee Bates was at his battle station in the generator flats, above the engine room, when the bombs started dropping.

The concussion from the explosions beside the plodding ship sprang steel plates and popped out rivets, Bates said. "Some of the fires started by the bombs were so intense it seemed like the metal was burning," said Bates, who now lives in Sahuarita, Ariz. The Langley's doom was sealed when water reached the electric motors that powered the ship! "Then she was dead in the water. There was no way we could steam it anyplace." The wounded were placed in lifeboats and rowed to the Lang-ley's escort destroyers, USS Ed-sail and Whipple, which pulled alongside the crippled carrier. Able-bodied seamen swam ap I Serving All Your Heating Needs Under One Roof IN WILLIAMSBURG FOR 23 YEARS discuss apartment idea HOME HEATING OIL and KEROSENE ELECTRIC and OIL WATER HEATERS ENERGY SAVING BURNERS and FURNACES HEAT PUMP and AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS A Newport News developer, Marvin Mazur, is interested renovating the school.

The school is now a surplus building since the construction a consolidated elementary school. Planning Director Mary- E. Williamsburg JOHN W..