Safety Expert Held in Fatal Shell Explosion

A safety officer for an Army contractor was charged Monday with second-degree murder for allegedly allowing a live military shell to be taken from Ft. Irwin to a Fontana scrap yard, where it exploded and killed a worker.

The 105-millimeter shell was contained in several tons of scrap metal purchased by Dick’s Auto Wrecking in Fontana, which had been assured that the load contained no explosives.

Authorities arrested Timothy M. Collister, 56, of Victorville, a former Air Force ordnance expert who worked as the safety and quality control officer for Allied Technology Group.

The company is under contract with the Army to clear the live-fire target ranges at the Army National Training Center at Ft. Irwin of ammunition and to then stockpile the inert ordnance at its base site, for later sale to local scrap and recycling yards that bid for it at auction.

Investigators found 54 more pieces of live shells and other ammunition at the wrecking yard, and uncovered at least three instances in which live ordnance was found stockpiled at the company’s yard at Ft. Irwin awaiting sale, said Barry A. Bruins, chief investigator for the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

The live shell exploded March 18, killing Martin Mendoza, 22, as he was attempting to dismantle it with a torch. Two employees were injured.

The explosion sparked a nine-month investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Defense Department’s Defense Criminal Investigative Services, as well as a federal review of military recycling procedures.

That review concluded that the military’s procedures for recycling material was flawed, and criticized the military’s use of independent contractors to collect and dispose of military scrap.

Collister, who was arrested Friday at his home, was being held Monday on $250,000 bail at San Bernardino County Central Jail.

According to Bruins, Collister falsely certified that he had inspected demilitarized scrap and concluded that it no longer contained explosive material.

After the March blast, explosives experts with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Defense Department found the 54 additional pieces of live ammunition at the wrecking yard in Fontana, including 30 that were considered potentially lethal if they exploded, Bruins said.

“Numerous witnesses stated that there were many occasions in which Mr. Collister signed off loads leaving the site that were not inspected,” Bruins said. “As a result, live ordnance was being transported over the highways of San Bernardino County and ultimately to Dick’s yard in Fontana.”

Bruins said that at Allied Technology Group’s site at Ft. Irwin, where live ordnance was found, “Mr. Collister had a responsibility to recheck and reinspect the entire stockpile of scrap. Such reinspections never occurred.”

A charge of second-degree murder, which carries a possible prison term of 15 years to life, can include killings that result from an intentional act that is dangerous to human life, even though the defendant did not intend to kill, the district attorney’s office said.

Richard Marca, attorney for Dick’s Auto Wrecking, said Monday that his client was among many salvage companies that bid for military scrap from the Mojave Desert Army base to recycle steel, aluminum and other metals.

“You buy in good faith, and you get a certificate from the person releasing it that the material is free of explosives,” he said. “When you buy a pile of scrap metal, there may be some inert ordnance material in it. You just buy it by the tonnage.

“In this particular purchase, representations were made that it included ordnance that was free of explosive materials and had undergone various safety procedures before it was allowed to be sold to the public,” Marca said.