Writing Basic News Leads

Story 1

One Dead from Collision with Fire Engine.

Lead: A collision leaving one dead and two firemen aboard hospitalized with no word on condition. The collision occurred at 7:10 this morning at the intersection of Post Road and Rollins Ave.

Nut Graph: A van struck a fire engine responding to an emergency call with the van’s speed estimated at 40 mph and the fire engine’s at about 25 mph. The fire engine’s light and siren were in action and authorities have not yet determined who is at fault. The fire turned out to be a false alarm.

Story 2

Bigger May be Better with Cars.

Lead: Many larger cars, such as station wagons and vans, show 40 to 50 percent better-than-average-claims in terms of injury and repair losses than smaller cars that rank up to at least 30 percent.

Nut Graph: The Highway Loss Data Institute found that there are advantages to driving big cars. Their studies show that small two-door models and other small cars have the worst injury and repair records. According to their analysis a motorist in a bigger four door car are 41 percent less likely to be hurt in an accident.

Story 3

Hot Dogs Blocking Children’s Airways.

Lead: “If you were trying to design something that would be perfect to block a child's airway, it would be a bite-size piece of hotdog,” says a researcher from  the American Medical Association. He concluded that children under 4 should “never be given a whole hot dog to eat.”

Nut Graph: It is estimated that every five days someone in the United States chokes to death on a hotdog. Other risky foods for young kids up to 9 years old include: candy, nuts, grapes, apples, carrots and popcorn.

Story 4

Death in Family Re-Lived

Lead: Sudden Death of 51 year old Kristine Belcuore left a family grief-stricken and left the family to proceed with a big $7,000 closed-casket funeral to find that the body that was buried was not the body of their beloved Mrs. Belcuor.

Nut Graph: The error was discovered when the medical examiners realized that a month-old corpse was missing and came to the conclusion that someone misread one of the identifying tags on the bodies. This means that Mrs. Belcuor’s body is still in the morgue and now the family has to go through the painful and emotional funeral process.