The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "safety inspections" ...
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Theme Park Lawsuits
This investigation looks at a secretive but very critical aspect of theme parks in Florida. This aspect is “how and how often people get hurt in theme parks, and what happens to them if they complain”. Private parks aren’t required to disclose or provide a description of non-fatal injuries and it has become a voluntary action to actually report these injuries.
Tags: federal; state; local; laws; regulations; safety; public; rides; lawsuits; inspections; memorandum of understanding; tourists
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Cross at Your Own Risk: Rails pose deadly threat
This investigation reveals a number of statistics from "nearly 3,000 public rail crossings" in Louisiana. Along with these statistics, it also reveals the people behind the numbers and how it has impacted dozens of lives. Some of the major statistics found are "nearly 1,500 defects statewide, some rail crossings haven’t been inspected over the 10-year period studied, few safety violations resulted in a fine or other penalty, and despite the denials drivers were not always responsible for the accidents."
Tags: FOIA; Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); Louisiana; railroads; rail crossings; safety equipment; accidents
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Trouble on the Tray
This series found problems in the federal, state, and local programs that supplied food to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some of the major findings: beef supplied for school lunches wouldn’t pass at national fast-food restaurants, chicken found at schools is only quality enough for pet food, supplied recalled beef to schools, failed to inform schools of bad tortillas, and many schools lacked the two inspections per year.
Tags: Food safety; Schoolchildren; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Schools; Cafeteria; Government; Lunch; Beef; Children; Food; Bad food; E. coli
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"Fowl Play"
In "Fowl Play," writer Tula Karras warns consumers of the potential dangers lurking in their chicken dinners. Arsenic and other harmful bacteria have been found in poultry, making it possible for those who consume it to become ill. Many chicken plants rely on "visual" safety "inspections" even though harmful bacteria cannot be seen by the "naked eye."
Tags: Chicken; poultry; campy; campylobacter infection; arsenic; gastrointestinal; USDA; bacteria; pathogens
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How Safe is Your Child's Day Care?
WFOR looked at every licensed day care in South Florida and examined their safety inspection records, making this material readily available to their viewers.
Tags: day care; South Florida; safety inspection; children;
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Fatal RV Flaws
"Poorly secured cabinets, braking issues, along with a lack of safety inspections or RV's, has led to the death and serious injury of hundreds of drivers and passengers."
Tags: RV; recreational vehicles; safety inspection; fatalities; NHTSA; FARS; Washington State Patrol accident reports
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Fire Department Corruption
This investigation revealed that hundreds of commercial building and large apartment buildings in New York City have been allowed to operate with defective and potentially dangerous fire alarm systems despite obvious violations found by Fire department civilian inspectors. This includes some hospitals, schools and department stores. Two inspectors alleged that, because of corruption, the fire department allowed buildings to get letters of approval needed for legal occupancy even with numerous fire alarm safety violations when certain former inspectors, working as consultants or expediters, were hired by the buildings' owners. Because of this investigation, the city council will hold public hearings on these allegations and comptroller William Thompson has turned over information from this investigation to "criminal authorities."
Tags: fire departments; New Jersey; corruption; dishonest hiring; building inspections
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Bridge Tracker
After 13 people died in August 2007 when a freeway bridge fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, governors across the nation rushed to calm fears. Using almost identical language, states assured the public that bridges are safe, because federal regulations require inspection of "every bridge at least once every two years." In fact, at lest 17,000 bridges in the U.S. went more than two years between safety inspections, according to federal records obtained by msnbc.com. Obtaining new records from the National Bridge Inventory under the Freedom of Information Act, bill Dedman of msnbc.com gave the public a look at inspection records through 2006. The series of articles documented several lapses in state and federal oversight bridge inspections. The interactive staff at msnbc.com created the Bridge Tracker, an interactive map of bridges, allowing readers to look at the inspection information for bridges they cross. The map shows the condition and inspection dates for more than 100,000 bridges with traffic of at least 10,000 vehicles a day.
Tags: bridge inspection; Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse; mapping; Freedom of Information Act; National Bridge Inventory; Department of Transporation
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Broken Buses
This series of investigations revealed serious, recurring and widespread safety violations involving hundreds of school buses used to transport nearly 20,000 children to Indianapolis-area schools, and the expanded to show critical safety problems affecting thousands of buses in school districts across Indiana. The investigation exposed problems not only with the school buses, but also identified gaping deficiencies in the Indiana State Police bus inspection program. It triggered immediate and dramatic action, prompted Indiana's largest school districts to call for more stringent oversight and more frequent inspections and provided parents with a hands-on tool to monitor the safety history of their children's school buses.
Tags: buses; public transportation; public safety; safety violations; school buses; investigation
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The Deadly Dust
Fox Five found that in the 1990s the National Institutes of Health was not having employees wear the required safety gear, exposing them to asbestos. Using a hidden camera, they were able to confirm that even now employees were still being exposed.
Tags: asbestos; health; safety; National Institutes of Health; NIH; federal employees; OSHA; hidden camera; inspections; regulations