Trucking Firm Fined for Safety Violations

The owners of a truck pulled over on the Golden State Freeway for illegally transporting pressurized oxygen tanks have been fined $10,800, according to Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn.

Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau fined Con-way Transportation Services Inc. of Menlo Park on Monday after the company’s attorney entered a no-contest plea to four violations of hazardous materials transportation safety laws, Hahn said.

The case resulted from an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Environmental Crimes Unit. An officer from that unit stopped a Con-way truck traveling on the freeway near Tuxford Street, according to Deputy City Atty. Brooke White, a prosecutor in Hahn’s office who handled the case. State law requires the display of four placards.

While inspecting the truck, the officer discovered that shipping papers were not properly stored and that some cylinders of compressed oxygen were not properly secured.

In a separate case last November, Con-way was fined $2,125 after pleading no contest to one count of failing to properly mark packages containing hazardous materials.

Authorities stopped one of the company’s trucks in Wilmington for a taillight malfunction and then discovered a cargo of several carbon dioxide tanks that were improperly marked and secured, Hahn said.