Inquirer staff writer Sam Wood reports:

Tailgating drivers in New Jersey, should prepare to slow down and back off.

State troopers will be using new laser technology and a variety of unmarked cars as they begin a crackdown on tailgaters Oct. 17 on the Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman. The campaign will run through Oct. 31.

Tailgating, or following another vehicle too closely, causes about a third of the crashes on New Jersey’s two main arteries, Jones said.

Troopers are advising drivers to maintain a distance of one car length for every 10 m.p.h. they are traveling.

Violators are subject to a sizable fine and five points on their driver’s licenses. 

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Staff  photographer Alejandro A. Alvarez reports:

Update: The hydrant was shut off as of Sunday, Oct. 18

For over a week, this fire hydrant on The Oak Road in the East Falls section of Philadelphia has been running non-stop.

Two calls to the city’s 311 and two transfers to the Water Department have produced no action.

Officers in a passing patrol car said they would notify the Fire Department.

In the meantime, the water flows at a rate of about 2,700 gallons a day, based on a rough calculation.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

View gallery

Staff photographer Alejandro A. Alvarez reports:

Is this proof the weather around here is winterlike?

We're not talking about that snow in the Poconos, but here in Philadelphia.

Police closed a section of Kelly Drive near the Art Museum because of possible black ice for a couple of hours this morning. Yes, black ice.

The temperature was 39 degrees at the airport at the time.

A meteorologist with the Mount Holly office of the National Weather Service is skeptical.

“I highly doubt it," said Lee Robertson. "The temperatures were quite a bit above freezing. The temperatures were around 40 degrees, and the dewpoint was around 37, so there’s no way that I know of that there could have been ice forming on the roadways.”

Perhaps it wasn’t the weather at all but that villain Mr. Freeze.

Sometimes oil and gas can make a wet road even slicker, Robertson said.

Whatever the cause, a Streets Department crew later spread salt on the stretch of roadway before it reopened.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Margate’s Lucy the Elephant reportedly has suffered an estimated $45,000 in wind damage.

The damage to the landmark’s rear and tail occurred Sept. 11, but the extent was not fully known until it was checked out by an architect last week, the Press of Atlantic City reports.

A tent whipped by high winds slammed into Lucy, damaging 86 posterior panels, the paper says. Lucy was built in 1881 as a tourist attraction.  

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

 Inquirer staff writer Sam Wood reports: 

A storm that has drenched parts of Los Angeles in the last 24-hours is expected to taper off before the Phillies face the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS at 8:07 p.m. ET.

Isolated showers may persist through parts of Southern California this evening, said a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service, but temps -- in the mid-60s -- will be considerably warmer than what the Phils faced in Denver.

Almost two inches of rain has fallen at LAX since yesterday, said Jamie Stern, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

 U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D. Pa.) fired off a letter to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie today urging him to oppose Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to buy the St. Louis Rams.

Sestak, who is challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary, called Limbaugh “divisive and offensive” and wrote that the conservative radio talk-show host “preaches values diametrically opposed to those of the Eagles and the NFL.”

Limbaugh announced yesterday that he was teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts to buy the Rams. Despite having the longest losing streak in the NFL, the franchise is valued at about $929 million.

Limbaugh and Checketts would need the approval of  24 of the NFL’s 32 owners to buy the team.

Sestak noted that Limbaugh, who once hosted a pre-game show on ESPN, made derogatory comments about Donovan McNabb in 2003 saying the Eagles quarterback received undeserved credit for the team’s success because of his race.

“Limbaugh offered no remorse or even a hint that he understood the absurdity and inappropriateness of his commentary,” Sestak wrote.

Sestak asked Lurie to join the NFL Players Association and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay to thwart Limbaugh’s bid.

The congressman sent a similar letter to Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney.
 

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Philadelphia police investigate a fender-bender between a Philadelphia Fire Department ladder truck and a parked vehicle at the corner of 18th and Sansom Streets this morning.

More images

Staff photographer Alejandrio A. Alvarez reports:

Philadelphia police are investigating a fender bender between a Fire Depertment ladder truck and a parked truck at the corner of 18th and Sansom Streets this morning.

No injuries were reported in the accident.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Inquirer Staff Report

Delaware State Police are trying to identify a man who was struck and killed by a Philadelphia-bound Amtrak passenger train early today in Wilmington.

The man stood in the path of the train about 12:20 a.m. on the rail line adjacent to I-495 in the area of Edgemoor Road, police said.

Due to the condition of the body, police said it might take some time to establish the man’s identity.

No foul play is suspected, police said. 

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Philadelphia police and medics attend to injured prisoners who were in police van involved in an accident on I-676 near the I-76 interchange in Philadelphia this morning.

More images

Inquirer Staff Report

A collision between a school bus and a police van carrying 10 prisoners snarled traffic on the westbound Vine Street Expressway through the morning rush hour.

There were no passengers on the school bus, but two police officers in the van  and the prisoners were taken to hospitals for examinations and treatment of injuires. None of the injuries appeared life threatening, police said.

Police removed prisoners one at a time from the van and placed them on stretchers for trips to a hospital under guard in individual ambulances.

The accident occurred around 7 a.m. near the expressway's merge with I-76 and the prisoner transfer operation  backed up traffic for over an hour. It also slowed traffic on southbound I-95 and the westbound Ben Franklin Bridge, both of which feed into the expressway. It was not until 10:50 a.m. that the Delaware River Port Authority reported that traffic had returned to normal on the bridge.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.