Driver, Chemical Firm Fined Over Shipments

A Sun Valley truck driver and a Portland, Ore., chemical company were ordered to pay a total of $21,845 in fines and costs after pleading no contest to two incidents of transporting hazardous materials in unsecured containers along Sun Valley surface streets, the city attorney’s office announced this week.

The driver, Juan Medina Lopez, 41, was fined $210 for his part in the incidents, while Great Western Chemical Corp. was ordered Tuesday to pay the balance of fines and costs by a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge.

An attorney for Great Western Chemical Corp.--which operates 32 chemical distribution facilities in 12 states, Canada and Mexico--entered the plea to eight counts of violating state hazardous materials transportation safety laws.

The two incidents occurred early this year when the Los Angeles Police Department Environmental Crimes Unit pulled over trucks driven by Lopez twice within one week, according to Deputy City Atty. Brooke White of the city attorney’s Environmental Protection Unit.

After the first traffic stop, on Sheldon Street near San Fernando Road, authorities found drums of hydrochloric acid being transported unsecured, with one of the drums leaking. Officers also reported insufficient labeling on the truck and incorrect shipping papers for some of the cargo.

On the next stop, on Strathern Street near Vantage Avenue, officers found drums of corrosive liquids transported in the same unsecured manner. Again they reported insufficient labeling of the trucks and inadequate shipping papers, White said.