LINDEN, N.J.

Police officers hospitalized following wrong-way accident

Two New Jersey police officers remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition on Saturday, a day after they were injured in a wrong-way crash in New York City that killed another officer and a friend.

Investigators have applied for a warrant to test the driver’s blood-alcohol level following the crash early Friday on the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island. But a New York Police Department spokesman said Saturday he did not know if the warrant had been approved.

Authorities said the four men were headed home from a strip club when their car drove the wrong way down the highway and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. The officers were off-duty at the time.

Pedro Abad, 27, who was driving the car, and Patrik Kudlac, 23, were hospitalized on Staten Island. Both are officers with the Linden police department.

Another Linden officer, Frank Viggiano, 28, and the officers’ friend, Joe Rodriguez, 28, were killed in the crash. The truck driver suffered injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

SOCHACZEW, Poland

U.S. air defense troops train on deploying Patriot missiles

U.S. air defense troops are training rapid deployment of Patriot missile launchers in Poland amid concerns that the conflict between Russia-backed rebels and government forces in Ukraine is threatening the security in the region.

Some 100 U.S. troops and 30 vehicles from the 5th Battalion of the 7th Air Defense Regiment arrived in Sochaczew this week from Germany, where they are stationed, to train with Polish troops. The exercise is aimed at showing the U.S. Army’s capacity to deploy Patriot air and missile defense systems rapidly within NATO territory. The Patriot missiles are superior to Poland’s air defense weapons.

Poland’s Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak and U.S. Ambassador Stephen Mull visited the troops on Saturday.

Speaking in fluent Polish, Mull said that the U.S. is always ready to “defend and stand by Poland’s side in times of need.”

PORTLAND, Ore.

Technical glitch sends notice of 8,000 inmate releases

Oregon authorities say routine maintenance on a computer database caused a technical glitch that sent out thousands of false reports saying prison inmates had been released.

About 8,000 incorrect notices went out to victims and their families Friday evening from the state’s victim notification system, including a report on the release of a prisoner convicted of killing two schoolgirls.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Betty Bernt says the system contractor, Appriss, is working on repairs and has twice alerted those who received the notifications that they were false.

Appriss said the system is used in 47 states, but the glitch was limited to Oregon.

– From news service reports

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