Very Bizarre incident...don't know if there is a computer malfunction/y2k related failure involved or not.

Parking Lot Security Device Malfunctions, Killing a Motorist

The Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Military investigators were trying to determine Saturday what went wrong with a pop-up security device in a parking lot at MacDill Air Force Base, causing an accident that killed a retired reservist.

Donna Jo Norder, 46, was driving into a parking lot at U.S. Special Operations Command shortly before noon Friday when a 3-foot barrier that pops up out of the road to block traffic apparently malfunctioned. Norder, a retired lieutenant colonel reservist and a Department of Defense contractor, used a clearance card to access the parking lot, said Master Sgt. Greg Bade, a MacDill spokesman.

The barrier appears to have popped up underneath Norder's Pontiac Bonneville as she drove over it, but it's not clear what killed her. The windshield was smashed, both airbags were deployed and the front end of her car was perched on top of the barrier when rescue workers arrived. Norder died at the scene, officials said.

The device is designed to retract into the ground when an electronic security clearance card is used, and a green light flashes, signaling motorists to proceed.

The barricades are used to control traffic flow at secure installations such as MacDill. They also are used at many sites in the nation's capital as a defense against terrorist attacks. The barrier has been closed while officials investigate the accident. Surveillance tapes are being reviewed as part of the probe.

"Everybody was definitely shocked at what happened," Bade said. "Our sympathies go out to family members. We've lost one of our own."

Link

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGIED72PV4C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 20, 2000

Answers

The airbags probably did it with a candlestick in the front seat.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 20, 2000.

They will find that the deployment of the airbags killed her.

But that information will be quashed until the family sues.

-- JIT (justintime@rightnow.net), February 20, 2000.

I'll be glad to hear,that there were no Bulletholes or Landmines,or similar Devices used.

-- Worried (no@irbag.death), February 20, 2000.

It popped-up underneath her car. Those things move with such force that if the barrier impacted undereath he seat, it probably drove her skull down onto her spine and killed her instantly.

I'm aware of two simialr incidents, one at the White House a few years back and another in the fifties at Mountain Home AFB, ID. After the Mt Home incident the Air Force quit using those things until they came back into vougue during the Klintoon administration.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 20, 2000.

Weird.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 21, 2000.