Tuesday's rush hour commutes were a rude awakening on day one of a regional rail slowdown by SEPTA that could last for months.
NBC10 learned the service disruption is the latest hiccup for the Silverliner V, which was supposed to be SEPTA's most advanced car.
At 30th Street Station around midday, the departure board said it all. A big chunk of the regional lines were delayed as commuters and the authority itself grapple with the sudden loss of nearly one-third of the regional rail car fleet, and few answers.
"I guess I'll start driving," said Suzanne Leaming from Chestnut Hill. "I'm not waiting an hour for another train. It's just crazy! It's too much."
SEPTA General Manager Jeff Kneuppel said the morning frustrations of over-crowded cars and skipped stops may grow through the week as more people return to work, especially for riders at stops closer to the city.
"Lot of people working on trying to determine: what happened? How it happened? What possible fixes can we make?" Kneuppel said during an afternoon news conference.
On the first day back from the 4th of July weekend, regional rails carried about 60-percent of typical weekday volume. And SEPTA is scrambling to figure out why the critical equalizer beams keep cracking right near the weld point.
"It can be workmanship issues with the welds," Kneuppel said. "It can be that that wasn't the correct design to have a weld in this location."
NBC10 confirmed the Silverliner V rail cars were assembled at the South Philly Hyundai Rotem plant -- a South Korean company with local workers.
The cracks are just the latest hiccup for the cars intended to be SEPTA's "most advanced."
In 2010 and 2011, the factory fell far behind on SEPTA's order, suffering heavy financial penalties for the delays. The company's Silverliner V's are also used in Colorado where officials are now checking for the same problem.
We made repeated attempts to talk with Hyundai Rotem about the manufacturer's assembly processing and the sourcing of their parts. They responded late in the day saying only that they are working closely with SEPTA.
Meanwhile, SEPTA is encouraging commuters who can, to use subways and buses or to drive to designated parking spots and catch transit from there. The agency is even trying to borrow train cars from New Jersey Transit and Amtrak.
But the impact of loaners will be limited.
"We're hoping to add more vehicles and equipment," Kneuppel said. "It's not a tremendous amount of equipment we're talking about because no one is sitting on a stockpile of cars and locomotives."
The borrowing issue is about capacity. NJ Transit said technically all of their rail cars would work on SEPTA's tracks, it's just not clear how many extra they have.
Fourteen fires were set in Camden in 48 hours near Parkside and Whitman Park neighborhoods, and now with residents losing sleep, police are asking everyone to keep their eyes open and remain vigilant.
"We don’t want any of our residents to get injured or God forbid killed as a result of these fires," Camden Fire Department Chief Michael Harper said.
Harper says the fires are being investigated as intentionally set fires, but the arsonist, or arsonists, remains unknown. The suspect(s) are gaining access to vacant homes through back windows and then igniting fires in various locations within the homes.
Landlords fear their vacant houses will be struck, houses that sit next to occupied homes. And although the fires have all been started during daylight, neighbors fear the attacker may strike at night.
“The person that lit this fire put peoples’ lives in jeopardy,” one Camden resident said.
Seven firefighters have been injured while fighting these flames, with one firefighter being hospitalized. Investigators are gathering samples of the accelerant for lab testing. A hotline has been set up, but officers emphasize the importance of residents being cautious and vigilant.
Anybody with information related to these fires is asked to call a hotline set up at 856-757-7042.
In one month, athletes from all over the world meet in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Among the athletes representing Team USA will be Vashti Cunningham, an 18-year-old high jumper. And despite the attention Vashti's receiving for being the youngest track-and-field athlete in 36 years, she has had some time getting used to the fame.
That’s because her coach, who is also her dad, is former Eagles quarterback and Hall of Famer Randall Cunningham.
"I think he can really teach me how to handle the media, and all the people coming at me wanting to know about the inside and everything," Vashti said.
Vashti says her dad helps her control her pride, and does not want her to handle fame the way he did.
“I’ve just been listening and learning from him,” she said.
Saturday at 7 p.m., we invite you to watch Going for Gold on NBC10 and NBC10.com. Vai Sikahema revisits his old teammate and Vashti as they prepare for the Rio Games.
Improvements are coming to Rodney Square.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the area across from the historic Hotel DuPont is getting new lighting, security cameras, and new bus shelters with electronic kiosks.
Officials hope the changes will make the area safer and allow buses to pass the park more quickly.
DART CEO John Sisson says the new bus stops should be ready by the end of the year. DART is proving up to $500,000 for the project.
Officials say they plan to expand bus service in the area after the project is completed. They say they hope to eventually build a cafe in the park.
A 13-year-old boy became the victim of an apparent road rage incident overnight after a woman returned with a gunman.
Neighbors along the 4300 block of Darien Street near Bristol Street in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood urged a woman in a white newer car, possibly a Honda, to slow down after it nearly hit playing children late Tuesday night, witnesses told police.
“There was an argument between the female driver of the vehicle and several of the pedestrians that were almost struck by the vehicle,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
The same vehicle driven by a woman in her late 20s returned to the block about 5 to 10 minutes later with a man on board, said investigators.
“The front seat passenger, the male, reportedly exited the vehicle and began firing shots north on Darien Street,” said Small.
A stray bullet struck the boy just feet from his front door, said Small. The boy was not involved in the initial road rage incident.
The boy’s family drove him to nearby St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children where doctors treated him in stable condition for a gunshot wound to this leg.
The gunman -- described as a heavy-set bearded man -- fired at least eight shots into the crowd of about two dozen people ranging from 2 years old to mid-20s, said Small.
Investigators hoped surveillance cameras would help them find the shooter. Anyone with information is asked to contact Philadelphia Police.
A few hours later a 14-year-old girl was shot while her friends played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home.
Two Paterson, New Jersey, police cruisers crashed in Passaic on Wednesday morning, sending a tire flying through a store window and leaving debris scattered at an intersection, police said.
The wrecked cop cars were at the intersection of Main and Van Houten avenues at 5:30 a.m. One was being towed away and a second was smashed up on a sidewalk with one of its wheels missing.
Nearby, the windows of a MetroPCS store were shattered and a tire and other debris littered the ground. One tire apparently flew into the store through the window.
It's not clear what led up to the crash or why the Paterson officers were in Passaic, but police said a crime took place in Paterson around 4 a.m.
It wasn’t immediately known if anyone was injured or if any arrests were made.
This is a developing story. Check back here for details.
A 4-year-old New Jersey girl called 911 to say her father had passed out in their car over the weekend, and the 41-year-old man was arrested, according to police and a published report.
The girl called 911 around 9:30 p.m. Saturday and police found her and her father in the car near Palisade and Lafayette avenues in Cliffside Park.
The child wasn't harmed. Her father, Jamil Graham, of Englewood Cliffs, allegedly had a half-full bottle of vodka in the vehicle and failed field sobriety tests, NorthJersey.com reported.
He was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and remanded to the Bergen County Jail in lieu of bail.
It wasn't immediately clear if Graham had an attorney. His daughter was released to a relative, NorthJersey.com said.
When a New Jersey teenager summoned the courage to tell her parents she was gay, she never expected what they did next — or the massive social media response that would follow.
Kinsey Ratzman, 17, says her parents directly asked her a few weeks ago if she was gay because they "kind of suspected something was up."
The ensuing conversation was "awkward but sweet," Kinsey, of Mercer County, told NBC 4 New York in a Twitter message.
It gave her the encouragement to come out to her friends over social media.
She wrote on Instagram: "A year ago today I found out that I'd be able to marry the love of my life in my own country... I was a very happy pup. #lovewins (& oh yeah btw I'm gay and this is me coming out yikes)."
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Then, last Saturday, Kinsey's parents told her they'd be having an early Fourth of July party. They sent Kinsey to the mall with her cousin, and when the two returned, Kinsey walked into a house covered in rainbows, complete with a rainbow-colored food spread.
Her parents had thrown her a surprise coming-out party.
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"I was shocked and so grateful for my family," Kinsey said.
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On the grill were rainbow-themed vegetable kebabs, and the table was filled with rainbow pasta and fruit. The family gathered around their backyard table with rainbow cups and plates and rainbow napkins reading "PRIDE."
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There was even a cake covered in fruit forming an American flag that revealed rainbow layers when sliced.
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Equally gratifying for Kinsey has been the response on social media after she shared the story of her family's surprise party on Twitter.
"It has been amazing," said Kinsey, who will be a senior this fall at a private high school in Pennsylvania. "The best part is seeing how happy the party has made everyone. Especially in light of the Pulse shootings this past pride month, our community needs a little joy and hope and I'm glad to say my family has helped contribute to that."
"I love being a part of such a caring and awesome community," Kinsey said. "People have been sending me so many kind words of encouragement."
Kinsey tweeted: "My DMs are full of people sharing their coming out stories and their future plans for coming out because of my tweet. My heart is so warmed."
An angry woman maced a SEPTA driver trying to help a wheelchair passenger board the bus Tuesday night.
"The woman was very angry because she felt the bus should have stopped for her in mid-block," said SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III.
The victim was working Route 47 in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia around 7:45 p.m. and stopped at N. 5th and West Olney Avenue to assist the wheelchair passenger.
The woman maced the female bus driver and inadvertently hit the passenger in the wheelchair, Nestel said.
Highway Patrol arrested the woman.
According to Nestel, the bus operator and passenger were taken to Einstein Hospital for treatment.
Here Comes the Heat
We certainly haven’t seen much heat so far this summer season. Since Memorial Day, we’ve only had five days of 90-plus-degree temperatures in Philadelphia. And the 4th of July only hit 80 degrees (after only 78 on the 3rd). The highest temperature has only been 92 degrees, so there’s been nothing close to extreme heat.
We certainly can get mighty hot this early in summer-our record for the 4th was 103 degrees in 1966! But here it comes….
Building Heat
Temperatures on the 4th of July were far below normal from the Mid-Atlantic States all the way west to Kansas (in the blue and purple areas)
The heat really starts to build Wednesday, as the blue colors turn to orange and red. Now we’re talking about temperatures well above normal, even for July:
And, the heat will build even more. By Friday, temperatures will be in the 90s (at least) from Maine to Florida. Since the humidity will be high as well, we’ll be having "feels like" temperatures well above 100 degrees. So, watch out for likely heat advisories later in the week.
The heat should last through Saturday. We expect to be back down into the 80s by Sunday and Monday.
If you or someone you know needs help dealing with the heat, contact the City of Philadelphia's heat line at 215-765-9040.
Uber is stepping in to help SEPTA Regional Rail customers contending with major train delays and overcrowding after the transit authority took a third of its fleet out of service over the weekend.
Uber, a transportation-on-demand service that allows users to order a car from anywhere at any time via a smartphone app, said it plans to sink more than $1 million into Philadelphia to help mitigate transit problems related to SEPTA's reduction in service.
SEPTA removed 120 of its newest train cars, Silverliner Vs, over the weekend after discovering that nearly all of the cars had a structural defect that caused cracks in their undercarriages. The deactivation is causing headaches for tens of thousands of commuters in the region, as SEPTA placed trains on a modified Saturday schedule and the packed trains have been forced to pass dozens of stations due to overcrowding.
Uber is expected to share more details about its plan to help SEPTA commuters in the coming days.
Ten companies are recalling 501,000 hoverboards sold nationwide over lithium-ion batteries that can overheat and explode, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Officials who announced the recall Wednesday said at least 99 incidents of overheated battery packs have been reported, causing burns and property damage. The batteries can smoke, spark and explode.
Affected hoverboards were sold by major retailers, both in stores and online, from June 2015 through May 2016, according to the CPSC. They were listed for $350 to $900.
The recall applies to the following products:
Customers who purchased affected hoverboards should stop using them and contact the manufacturer for a full refund, repair or return.
More information is available through the CPSC by calling 800-638-2772 or visiting www.cpsc.gov.
Taylor Swift sent the celebrity-obsessed Internet into a tizzy this week over whether her romance with actor Tom Hiddleston is true love or a performance-art put-on. One tipoff for conspiracy theorists: Hiddleston's Fourth of July fashion choice – an "I (heart) T.S." tank-top – seems too cheesy and demonstrative for a Brit (unless, of course, he's simply declaring his love for his countryman, the late poet and playwright T.S. Eliot).
Either way, Swift's public promulgation of the awkwardly nicknamed "Hiddleswift" alliance marks a victory: She's succeeded in stealing back the Internet from her frenemy, Kanye West, and re-breaking it in her own image.
Swift is an artist determined to control her persona by carefully sharing – or over-sharing – scenes from her love life, manufactured or otherwise. Country's young queen of the breakup album, like Beyoncé, displays a consistent knack for turning lemons into lemonade.
Swift is taking back a storyline dominated in recent weeks by her public split with DJ Calvin Harris and her latest pillorying from West, who included an apparently doctored image of her in the buff in his instantly infamous "Famous" video. West declared the effort, which also featured nude renderings of his wife, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and Bill Cosby, among others, a statement on celebrity, though it's unclear exactly what he's trying to say.
It's a good bet Swift knows what she wants to say, but is happy – for now – to let fans do the talking as her relationship with the actor who played Thor's evil brother, Loki, unleashes a summer storm of speculation.
Intentionally or not, Swift is making her own statement on fame at a time when there are far more important things for the world to worry about other than whether two talented entertainers are an item or practical jokers.
But Swift, a digital native at 26, is just competing in a game she was born to play. On stage and online, Taylor Swift knows how to put on a show.
Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.
A 14-year-old girl wound up shot in the chest while playing with a gun with some friends inside a Philadelphia home.
Philadelphia Police found a 14-year-old girl with gunshot wounds to her hand and chest along Bloyd Street near E Locust Avenue in the city’s Germantown neighborhood around 3 a.m.
The girl initially told police she had been shot on the street by an unknown person, said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
"We determined that this 14-year-old was inside a private residence… she was with several of her friends, they were playing with a gun," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. "There was a male who was pointing the gun at several of the friends, including the female. The gun, preliminarily -- we believe -- accidentally discharged."
Investigators believe the same bullet struck the girl in both her hand and chest, said Small.
Medics took her to Einstein Medical Center in critical condition. Small said she is expected to survive.
Some back windows open on the second floor lead police and firefighters to finding a handgun and rifle on the roof of the home, which is not where the girl lives, said Small.
Investigators believe they know who pulled the trigger but no one was immediately charged.
This shooting came just hours after a 13-year-old boy was struck by a stray bullet during a road rage shooting in the city’s Hunting Park neighborhood.
A Delaware County teacher on Tuesday pleaded guilty to preying on a student and sexually assaulting her after she confided him him following a breakup with her boyfriend in 2014.
Gregory Stanczuk, 52, of West Chester, taught and coached at Ridley High School for three decades until earlier this year, when the allegations of sexual abuse surfaced and the school fired him.
Prosecutors said Stanczuk, who is married and has children, took the opportunity of an 18-year-old student's breakup to target her, and would drive her around, kiss her and touch her. On one known occasion, Stanczuk drove the girl to a hotel and performed oral sex on her, then expected her to have sex with him, prosecutors said -- but that never happened after the girl became upset and reminded him of his marriage.
Stanczuk also gave the victim a gift and gave her beer during a track team trip, getting her drunk before making advances on her, prosecutors said.
Stanczuk pleaded guilty to institutional sexual assault in Delaware County Court on Tuesday and received a sentence of seven to 23 months in jail, plus five years' probation. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.
A longtime Delaware County high school physics teacher and track and field coach has been charged with sexual assault for allegedly carrying on a relationship with one of his students, county prosecutors said.
