The Birmingham News: Emergency medical authorities and hospitals in the Birmingham area have launched one of the nation's first systems to monitor continuously for casualties from a chemical or biological attack...

Alabama has the fourth-highest death rate from highway motor vehicle accidents per capita in the country. The motor vehicle death rate in the state's rural areas is twice the urban rate.

Health officials believe those statistics will improve with the statewide trauma system Alabama is planning...

Trauma centers and emergency departments are strained in many U.S. cities, experts say, and hospitals are ill-prepared to handle a disaster, The Associated Press reported Sunday. "Trauma systems are never more than a couple of minor incidents from being overwhelmed," said Larry Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.

But that’s not the case in Birmingham, where local emergency medical personnel say the Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System makes this area much better prepared for a mass casualty incident disaster than many larger cities.

Months before the Sept. 11 attack on America, Joe Acker had terrorism on his mind...