LOS ANGELES – Shomari Jennings was willing to pay the $70 ticket he received for driving without a seatbelt, but not the slew of tacked-on fees and penalties that ballooned the cost more than tenfold.

Every $10 of his base fine triggered a $26 “penalty assessment” for courthouse construction, a DNA identification program, emergency medical services and other programs. Other fees ranged from $1 to $35.

“It’s the new tax,” Jennings, 30, complained while waiting in traffic court to contest a staggering bill compounded by a $500 fine for missing a court date.

And motorists can only expect more of the same as cash-strapped cities and states consider measures ranging from expansion of red-light camera systems to charging drivers for cleanup after accidents.

In Iowa, lawmakers grappling with shortfalls in the state’s public safety budget are exploring ways to increase fines for traffic violations. There’s a proposal in Maryland to add a $7.50 charge to traffic fines to help pay for law enforcement and fire protection equipment.

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DAKAR, Senegal – A top official in Sierre Leone’s government said he raced to a town in the country Friday after news reports said at least 200 people had been killed in a mining accident there, only to find out it was a hoax.

Minister of Mineral Resources Alpha Kanu said that when he, dozens of police officers, soldiers and firefighters arrived in the quiet African mining town, they found miners at rest and preparing for customary Friday prayers.

“It’s a complete hoax,” Kanu said.

“The whole country is awash with grief for something that is not true at all,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on his cell phone as he returned from Bo, 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

Kanu said the rumor began with local radio stations, then was picked up by international media. At one point, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement in Paris offering its condolences to the mine accident victims, and officials at the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone were trying to try to confirm the reports.

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SEATTLE – School districts have imposed all sorts of drastic cuts to save money during the down economy, canceling field trips and making parents pay for everything from tissues to sports transportation.

And some have now resorted to placing advertisements on school buses.

School districts say it’s practically free money, and advertisers love the captive audience that school buses provide.

That’s the problem, say opponents: Children are being forced to travel to school on moving media kiosks, and the tactic isn’t much different than dressing teachers in sponsor-emblazoned uniforms.

“Parents who are concerned about commercial messages will have no choice,” said Josh Golin, associate director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. “Parents won’t be given the option to send their kids on the ad-free bus.”

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CAMPBELLTON, Texas – A crowded bus carrying young families and spring breakers toward Mexico went careening off a Texas highway and flipped onto its side Tuesday, killing two people and forcing dozens of bloodied passengers to climb to safety through broken windows and an emergency exit.

The Americanos USA bus left San Antonio with 42 people on board and was headed to the Mexican border city of Matamoros, with planned stops in Falfurrias and McAllen, Texas.

About 45 miles from San Antonio, the bus driver heard a loud noise before the bus veered from the right lane of Interstate 37. The bus spun toward the grassy median and landed on its right side, said Chuck Garris, the emergency management coordinator for Atascosa County.

Daryl Champagne, 17, of San Antonio, who was on his way to South Padre Island with two high school classmates for spring break, said he was thrown through a window and was wedged between the bus and the ground before he managed to crawl free.

“I think we did a 180. We flipped and I was out the window,” said Champagne, who had cuts from glass all over his back. “I went through to the ground and was out of the bus.”

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) –
Canada needs to do more to resolve safety issues on its airlines, railways and in the marine industry, the country’s transportation safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) issued a list of nine “critical safety issues” it has observed in investigating accidents over the past 20 years and it feels have not been properly addressed.

The risks are as diverse as insufficient safety areas at the end of airport runways, inadequate passenger lists on ferries, and the use of long freight trains in which empty and loaded freight cars have not been properly placed.

Transport Canada must also require domestic marine operators to adopt safety management systems, and must also better ensure railways and airlines are using the management systems they already have in place, the TSB said.

“The target of this (report) is both the government and the industries,” said Wendy Tadros, chairwoman of the TSB, an independent agency that investigates rail, marine and airplane accidents to determine how they could be prevented.

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