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E. coli, a common food borne bacteria sickens tens of millions and injures or kills thousands of people in the United States each year. On August 6, 2010, Valley Meat Co., a Modesto-California based processor, recalled 1 million pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, according to a recent Bloomberg news report.

Seven people may have been sickened by a “rare strain” of the bacteria after eating the meat, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on its website. The beef was produced between early October and mid-January, and the USDA is “concerned that some product may still be frozen and in consumers’ freezers,” the agency said.

The meat was distributed to grocery stores and food-service companies in California, Texas, Oregon, Arizona and internationally, the USDA said.

The recall was the first in Valley Meat’s 50-year history, according to a statement on the company’s website.

“We will investigate the matter thoroughly and take any measures deemed necessary to further elevate our safety standards, protect consumers and ensure confidence in our products,” the company said.

E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure, according to the USDA. The very young, seniors and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to food-borne illness.

On July 30, 2010, an industrial building with a tampered gas line exploded, killing a man who was hurled into the street and another who was electrocuted by a downed power line, officials announced, according to an Associates Press news report. The blast turned the front of the wooden building in South Los Angeles into a mass of downed, shattered wooden beams. The building caught fire and 100 firefighters doused the blaze in about 25 minutes, fire spokesman Erik Scott said.

One of the victims died as he tried to move his stake-bed truck away from the building and was jolted by a downed 34,500-volt power line, fire Capt. Stephen Ruda said.

Daniel Ibarra, who works at the building, said he was taking out the trash when the blast hit. The 27-year-old man appeared in shock as he leaned against a wall with a bruised leg surveying the damage.

An urban search-and-rescue team shored up beams and sent in dogs to search for another person after hearing reports that someone might be trapped in the debris. Ruda said the dogs detected nothing, but heavy equipment would be brought in to move the debris and continue the search.

The cause of the blast remained under investigation, but Ruda said it was suspected that natural gas or an industrial gas may have been leaking and collected overnight in the building then ignited when operations resumed in the morning.

The gas meter at the building was shut off yesterday, and someone installed an illegal line to the meter that allowed natural gas from a street line to enter at excessively high pressure, said Denise King, a spokeswoman for Southern California Gas Co.

The gas line bypassed the meter’s shut-off valve and its regulator, which was designed to reduce pressure to safe levels, King said. She did not know why the meter had been shut off.

The business, J.L. Spray, has four employees and makes metal security fences, doors, windows and gates, said Elizabeth Alvarado, a secretary for the business.

She was not at the site when the blast occurred but said the owner, Jaime Lara, arrived every morning to start a propane furnace that is used to heat-cure a paint-like powder coating that is used on the metal.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported in 2007 that there were 278 buses involved in fatal crashes and 6,593 buses were involved in injury crashes. 322 fatalities were reported in the United States in 2007 resulting from bus accidents. 15,888 injuries from bus accidents were reported in 2007.

During the early morning hours of July 22, 2010, a Greyhound bus traveling to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley, killing six and seriously injuring nine others, according to a recent Associated Press news report.

The bus, carrying 36 people, struck an SUV that had overturned in front of it, slammed into a concrete center divider and clipped another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. just outside downtown Fresno, California Highway Patrol Officer Axel Reyes said. It went off the right shoulder of the highway down a 15-foot embankment, hit a eucalyptus tree and came to rest on a freeway off-ramp with its front end smashed and tree branches jutting into the vehicle.

Twisted pieces of metal, broken glass and torn clothing littered the ground around the bus wreckage.

Arlen Snider, who had been traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento to visit his mother, said he was asleep in the middle section of the bus when the crash occurred. He awoke to the smell of smoke and injured passengers all around him.

“I woke up on the floor of the bus and started helping people off the bus,” Snider, who escaped uninjured, said after arriving in Sacramento’s bus terminal Thursday morning.

The six dead included four women and two men. Nine people were taken to the hospital with moderate to critical injuries, Reyes said. The bus driver was among the dead.

“I had just woke up and I heard a boom once, and a boom again and the next thing I know we were down this embankment,” Linda Gee, a passenger on the bus, told KMPH-TV in Fresno.

The blue Chevy Trailblazer that had overturned in the fast lane also landed at the bottom of the embankment, its roof caved in and doors crushed.

Officials were investigating the cause of the initial SUV crash, including whether it was related to drunken driving, Reyes said.

The bus departed Los Angeles late Wednesday and stopped in Fresno before continuing on its route to Sacramento with 35 passengers on board, said Greyhound spokeswoman Bonnie Bastian. It was on its way to Madera for one of about eight scheduled stops when the crash occurred.

A relief bus was sent to take nine passengers who wanted to continue on to their destinations.

The two northbound lanes of Highway 99, a major route through the San Joaquin Valley, were closed for several hours after the crash.