Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.
2 girls stranded on Stratosphere ride
High winds caused the Stratosphere's newest ride to stop running early this morning, suspending two passengers in midair more than 900 feet above the ground for more than an hour, the hotel said today.
The hotel said no malfunction occurred but rather the Insanity ride "went into pause mode" automatically, triggered by the wind. When the winds didn't die down, ride workers manually overrode the "pause" to bring the ride back to the station, the hotel said.
Witnesses reported that the ride was pulled back to the observation deck by a chain.
Two girls, ages 11 and 16, at least one of whom was a Las Vegas resident, were the only passengers on the last Insanity ride of the night. They got stuck around 12:45 a.m. and were brought down at 2:05, the hotel said.
Wind gusts atop the tower were reported to be as strong as 55 mph miles Tuesday night, the hotel said.
The ride, which extends an arm out from the top of the tower about 60 feet, then spins passengers quickly around a spindle, opened March 10.
The hotel said it was investigating to make sure similar incidents in the future can be dealt with more quickly.
"Our personnel responded immediately as trained, yet it took longer than we anticipated," said Bobby Ray Harris, the hotel's general manager and senior vice president.
Push for Yucca in study fails
Reps. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., failed in an attempt Tuesday night to focus a federal study of potential terrorist threats on Yucca Mountain.
The lawmakers sought to add a Yucca Mountain amendment to a comprehensive energy policy bill under debate in Congress. But the House Rules Committee rejected it.
The energy bill already contains language that the White House and Nuclear Regulatory Commission would study various threats to nuclear facilities, including the potential for attacks on high-level nuclear waste shipments by "multiple coordinated teams of a large number" of terrorists. The amendment offered by Berkley and Porter aimed to add Yucca Mountain to a list of facilities to be studied.
Nevada lawmakers say they intend to continue to press for further federal study of terrorist risks associated with the plan to construct a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Truck strikes police motorcycle
A 32-year-old Metro Police officer was injured when his police motorcycle was struck by a pickup truck about 10 p.m. Tuesday on Buffalo Drive near Edna Avenue, police said.
Officer David Stoddard had his police lights on and was attempting to pull over a speeding motorist on Buffalo Drive when the right side of his motorcycle was struck by a 2005 Nissan Frontier driven by 36-year-old Virginia Lee, police said.
Lee was driving out of a private road and crossing Buffalo to go east on Edna and failed to yield the right-of-way to Stoddard, police said. Lee was cited.
Stoddard was taken to University Medical Center and was listed in good condition this morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Burro money added to bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on Tuesday announced that they slipped $5 million for a national wild horse and burro adoption center into an $81 billion "emergency" appropriations bill to pay for ongoing military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate is expected to approve the war bill this week, despite watchdog critics who say it includes too many non-war related items. The House passed its version without the horse and burro center money. A panel of House and Senate negotiators would meet to finalize details of the spending bill.
The money would pay for design and construction of the center. The total cost of the center, about $9 million, will ideally be shared by the state, charitable organizations and private donations, the senators said. The center, to be run by UNR and the nonprofit National Wild Horse Center, would be in Lyon County, about 10 miles east of Carson City. It could offer space for more than 20 permanent and 100 "adoptable" animals, the senators said.
The center could offer shelter to animals that might otherwise die from malnutrition or illness, Ensign said.
"It will also provide a tourist attraction for visitors to enjoy and a boost to Lyon County's economy," said Ensign, a veterinarian.
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