THE JEWISH NEWS
THIS ISSUE 60(P
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
APRIL 28, 1989 / 23 NISAN 5749
Police Probing
UHS Bus Fire
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
The United Hebrew Schools bus
that caught fire in Royal Oak on Fri-
day after its brakes allegedly
malfunctioned got a clean bill of
health from state inspectors,
Michigan State Police records show.
"The bus passed inspection with
flying colors:' said state police Sgt.
Louis Rice. "We know there was a bus
fire. But we don't know for sure what
the problem was."
Police were scheduled to inspect
the bus on Wednesday, Rice said.
No one was injured when the bus
— carrying 11 handicapped persons —
burst into flames after the driver
pushed the brake pedal to the floor.
Driver Roosevelt Peoples evacuated
the passengers when he saw flames
coming from the engine.
The bus was going to the New
Horizons Workshop in Madison
Heights. One person was treated at
William Beaumont Hospital in Royal
Oak for smoke inhalation.
Rice said 99 percent of United
Hebrew Schools' 80 buses passed in-
spection for the 1988-89 school year
during the first round. Rice said he
believes Friday's fire is the only inci-
dent of its kind with a UHS bus dur-
ing the past two years. State police
keep records of bus performance for
two years.
UHS, which transports hundreds
of children, elderly and handicapped
persons on its buses each day, recent-
ly purchased the 1981 General
Motors Corp. vehicle. UHS leases its
buses to the Jewish Community
Center, Sinai Hospital, Beth Yehudah
Schools, Hillel Day School, Roeper
School, the New Horizons Workshop,
Jewish Vocational Services and
various Catholic schools.
Toby Broder of the UHS
transporation department said there
have been no other problems with the
bus fleet. During the year, she said,
about 40 buses are used each day. All
buses are used during the summer,
when the JCC hosts its day camp, she
said.
Police inspect 180 items on each
bus once a year, generally between
spring and summer. To date, 29 UHS
buses have been inspected. Of those,
two failed inspections, but were
repaired and back on the road the
same day.
Hitler's Birthday
Passes Quietly
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
No incidents of vandalism in con-
nection with Hitler's birthday April
20 were reported to police depart-
ments in southern Oakland County
or to the Michigan office of the Anti-
Defamation League.
Local officials were concerned
that four incidents in Southfield last
November on the anniversary of
Krystallnacht — the Night of Broken
Glass in Germany in 1938 — would be
repeated on the 100th anniversary of
Adolph Hitler's birth.
Richard Lobenthal, Michigan
region director of the ADL, theorized
that police scrutiny and recent arrests
of local skinheads may have helped to
block any incidents.
On April 15, five youths were ar-
rested in Auburn Hills for assaulting
two black women, a black man and a
white man at a convenience store. The
five youths, including two Canadians,
were charged with ethnic intimida-
tion under a new Michigan law based
on ADL model legislation.
One of the youths was later
charged with obstruction of justice
after he returned to the party store
and threatened the clerk.
Two of the three local teens,
Michael Pancak, 19, of Lake Orion,
and Gerald Hight, 17, of Auburn
Hills, pleaded guilty last fall on
charges involving a fight at Bir-
mingham Groves High School. In that
incident, skinheads taunted and
jumped a black student.
In the April 15 incident, the five
were charged with assault and bat-
tery and ethnic intimidation; Scott
Marquart, 18, of Madison Heights,
was charged with felonious assault.
Nationally, the ADL office in New
York reported few incidents tied to
Hitler's birthday. David Lowe, the
ADL's associate director of fact
finding, said "things were quiet. It is
Continued on Page 15
nce iscovery
a box of old letters
he attic changed forever
one woman's life.