Firm in Fatal Crash Cited 7 Times in a Year

The trucking company transporting the huge concrete pipes that fell off a flatbed trailer in the Mojave Desert on Monday, killing six people, was cited last month by Nevada authorities after a load of plastic pipes toppled off one of its trucks in Reno.

The Nevada state trooper handling the earlier case said two restraining straps broke, shifting the load and causing about 150 heavy PVC pipes to tumble loose as the truck was turning off one freeway onto another.

In this week’s crash, still under investigation, straps holding three concrete pipes onto the flatbed broke as the vehicle was turning on a highway curve.

The incidents involved different drivers. There were no serious injuries in last month’s crash.

The trucking company, First Class Service Trucking Co. based in Tracy, Calif., has been cited seven times in the last 12 months in California for “unsafe condition of vehicle, load or equipment,” according to California Highway Patrol records.

The records did not detail the reasons for the citations. Company Vice President Jim Alves said Thursday that for a company its size--with a fleet of more than 30 trucks--seven such citations in a year “is really not that many.”

At the same time, the company’s inspection record does not compare favorably with the national average, federal documents show.

Records maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation state that over a two-year period, First Class’ trucks were examined 120 times by state commercial truck inspectors, usually alongside weigh scales, and that in 51 cases they were immediately ordered out of service until repairs or corrections were made. That “out of service” rate of 42.5% compares with a national average of 25.1% of trucks inspected, according to the department’s motor carriers division.

“We had a streak of bad luck there, I guess,” Alves said.

The specific reasons the trucks were ordered off the highway were not disclosed in the records, which are based on reports from state highway patrol inspectors filed in a national database.

Despite the 42.5% inspection failure rate, the company was awarded an overall “satisfactory” safety rating--the highest offered by the federal government--because there was “no evidence of substantial noncompliance with safety requirements,” according to the agency’s records.

A U.S. Department of Transportation official in Sacramento said Thursday that he could not discuss the company’s safety record because the firm was undergoing a new inspection in the wake of Monday’s predawn tragedy.

The crash occurred when the 1991 Freightliner, headed west on California 58 near Boron, was traveling through a sweeping curve and the load of three 30-foot-long, 3-foot-diameter pipes apparently shifted. Each of the four nylon restraining straps, designed to hold the pipes securely on the flatbed, broke, said Sgt. John West of the California Highway Patrol.

The pipes, weighing a total of 46,000 pounds, fell onto the roadway, smashing head-on into two eastbound vehicles. A Henderson couple in a sedan and a Redlands family of four in a minivan were killed on impact. Funeral services for Randy Ledford, 32, his wife, Melissa, 25, and their son, Lonny, 9, and daughter, Skyler, 6, are scheduled for Saturday in Beaumont.

Trucker Richard Sommerville, 59, of Riverside was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol. He was released from jail Wednesday while San Bernardino County prosecutors await a CHP report to decide whether they will file criminal charges.

Probe’s Focus Is on Broken Straps

West, who is heading a specialized team of CHP and Caltrans crash investigation experts in Riverside, said Sommerville’s speed did not appear to be a factor in the crash, and that although his blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.05%, there was no immediate evidence that he was driving erratically. However, commercial drivers are not allowed to drive when their blood-alcohol level reaches 0.04%. (The limit for regular motorists is 0.08%.)

“One question is whether that level of alcohol in his system affected his judgment in determining the safety of the load,” West said.

The primary focus of the CHP’s investigation, West said, is how and why the four nylon straps broke. The investigation will take at least two months.

Broken nylon straps were blamed for the July 7 pipe spill in Reno, said Charles Allen, a Nevada Highway Patrol commercial enforcement officer who investigated the incident.

The accident was not extensively investigated because the only injury was a small scrape to the driver, and no other vehicles were involved. The driver was cited for “an unsecure load.”

Allen said the pipes were about 30 feet long and six inches in diameter, bundled in six groups of about 25 each. He was unable to estimate their weight, but said he could pick them up individually.

“I attributed the wreck not to speed or driver error, but to the straps being weak,” Allen said in a telephone interview. “It looked like the truck was about 80% through the curve, and the straps broke.” In the ensuing load shift, the truck fell onto its side, Allen said.

It looked like the straps had rotted somewhat, Allen said, “and it didn’t take a lot of pressure for them to tear.”

Alves said he had not yet seen the report of the Reno accident, but he disputed Allen’s assessment. Alves said the straps broke only after the flatbed flipped on its side while negotiating the curve, and ripped when scraping against the pavement.

But Allen said one of the two broken straps never made contact with the roadway.

At Monday’s crash site, the CHP found no evidence that the truck was being driven irregularly, and so authorities are investigating why the straps broke as the flatbed was being driven through a curve at a normal speed.

No motor vehicle regulation specifically addresses quality standards for restraints used to hold down concrete pipes, said a CHP spokesman. Rather, he said, it is left to the judgment of the truck owner and driver as to how to securely fasten loads. Tie-downs can include nylon, rope, wire or chain.

Alves said his company has not experienced other spilled loads, and according to CHP records, the company had not been cited for any load spills in the last 12 months.

Strap breakage is exceedingly rare, both West and Allen said.

“It’s up to the drivers and the companies to look for wear and to maintain the straps and, if they appear to be unsafe, to replace them,” West said. “Like anything, they wear out. Most drivers and companies are pretty good about watching it, because they don’t want to lose loads or have anyone get hurt.”

In the case of Monday’s tragedy, West said, “We know the straps broke, but we don’t know why, when or how. That’s what we’re trying to determine.”