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Maniac intentionally crashes Hummer into Virginia diner

A Virginia man is in police custody today after ramming his SUV into a restaurant and causing a massive fire. Employees at the Silver Diner in McLean, VA were in the middle of the lunch rush when around 12:30 p.m., according to NBC Washington, a gray Hummer crashed into the restaurant's front door. The SUV driver backed the vehicle up and rammed the building again, striking a patron and trapping him between the SUV and the door. The driver rammed the restaurant a third time and his Hummer burst into flames. "There was total pandemonium in the restaurant," Will Yeatman, a witness who was having coffee at the diner at the time of the incident, told NBC. A chaotic video shot by Yeatman shows people in a state of panic, screaming, or dragging the wounded away from the burning vehicle. Some witnesses tried to save the Hummer driver from his burning vehicle, but he tried to fight them off. "He was fighting," witness Janie Watkins told NBC. "He said, 'Get away from me. Leave me alone, leave me alone." He was eventually extracted from the vehicle after witnesses cut his seat belt and pulling him out. The driver, whose name has not been released, was identified as an employee of the restaurant who had taken bereavement leave on April 5. He had been an employee of the restaurant for two years, and in an official statement the Silver Diner stated that the company had "no indication that the employee would harm himself or others." The unnamed employee was fired in the wake of the incident. Three people were taken to a local hospital, and one victim was treated at the scene. Police have not indicated yet whether the driver will be charged with a crime. Related Video: News Source: NBC Washington Weird Car News Hummer Driving Safety SUV Videos car fire

Body shop manager stole over $500,000 worth of government trucks and parts

The US Department of Justice announced yesterday that the manager of a collision and restoration business in Virginia admitted he helped misappropriate and sell vehicles and parts from the State Department. Specifically, he sold 12 Chevrolet Suburbans, a Hummer, and $7,500 worth of tires and wheels. He pled guilty to charges to commit theft of government property and wire fraud. He will likely see 18 to 20 months in prison, a fine of $4,000 to $40,000, and has already agreed to pay restitution of $416,020 and asset forfeiture of the same amount. According to the Department of Justice, the body shop manager, James Ratcliffe, worked with the owner of the business and a State Department official, both unnamed, to obtain the property. It started with the wheels and tires, which were delivered and sold on two occasions, one in 2011 and another in 2012. The trucks came later, and were sold throughout 2011 and 2013. Ratcliffe and the shop owner kept most of the profits, and shared some of the leftovers with the government official. In addition to the vehicles that were sold, the government official also gave Ratcliffe a pair of Suburbans for his own personal use. The Department of Justice estimated the total value of the SUVs at $96,400. In total, the group misappropriated $512,420 worth of property. Related Video:

General Motors has tried to cast Hummer in a greener light before

Rumors claim General Motors will resurrect the Hummer name on an electric pickup truck by 2022, and GM allegedly will preview the model with an ad starring basketball star LeBron James during the 2020 Super Bowl. If accurate, the move would represent a stunning 180-degree turn for a nameplate long associated with war-like gas-guzzlers. It wouldn't be the first time the automaker has tried to cast Hummer in a greener light, however. In 2004, when mass electrification looked as realistic as George Jetson's flying car, Hummer collaborated with Quantum Technologies to build a one-off H2 SUT named H2H powered by hydrogen. Engineers modified the stock H2's 6.0-liter V8 to run on compressed hydrogen stored in three carbon fiber tanks, and added a supercharger to offset the loss of power. The eight-cylinder made 180 horsepower, compared to 325 horsepower in the gasoline-powered model, and the truck's 12-pound hydrogen storage capacity gave it a 60-mile range. "The H2H was created for two purposes. It brings focus and attention to the journey to a hydrogen economy, and it will provide GM with key learnings on hydrogen storage, hydrogen delivery systems, and hydrogen refueling infrastructure development," explained Elizabeth Lowery, the company's then-vice president of environment and energy. She emphasized the H2H's experimental vocation and said there were no plans to bring it to production. Actor, then-California governor, and devout Hummer fan Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated the H2H as a vision of the future after taking it for a spin. It didn't have much of a future, as it turns out, and it remained a prototype. Fast-forward to 2009, less than a year before Hummer shut down after the Chinese government vetoed a proposed sale to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company. General Motors teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, it had much bigger worries than Hummer's fuel economy, so the task of making a greener truck fell into the lap of suppliers. FEV and Raser joined forces to build a plug-in hybrid prototype based on the H3. Its powertrain was built around a turbocharged, 2.0-liter EcoTec engine related to the unit found in the Chevrolet HHR SS and the Pontiac Solstice GXP, among other cars. In this application, it powered a 100-kilowatt generator that zapped a 268-horsepower electric motor into motion. Output traveled through the H3's stock four-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel-drive system, including the transfer case.