L.A. School District Faces Charges in Fuel Spill
Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn on Tuesday filed criminal charges against the Los Angeles Unified School District and one of its employees in connection with a 160-gallon diesel fuel spill in San Pedro.
A passing motorist noticed the fuel leaking from a district-owned tanker and notified the driver, said Patricia Bilgin, a prosecutor in Hahn’s Environmental Protection Unit.
Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department alleged that fuel spilled from a tanker for three-quarters of a mile, beginning at Park Western Drive and Via La Paz and continuing along Park Western Drive and Channel Street to John S. Gibson Boulevard.
The spill was caused by a broken clamp on the tanker’s output pipe and by failure to close a safety valve that would have limited the spill to about three gallons, investigators ruled.
The driver, Randy Eugene Strickland, 45, of Diamond Bar, and the school district face six counts each, ranging from failure to close the safety valve to failure to describe a hazardous material class on shipping papers, Bilgin said.
Each count is punishable by up to six months in jail and a possible $1,000 fine, she said.
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