Defunct Company Fined in Oil Spill

A former Westlake Village trucking firm was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $240,000 in damages, fines and cleanup costs in connection with a fatal oil tanker crash that fouled 22 miles of streambeds in western Ventura County two years ago.

But state officials may never see a dime from defendant R.P. Cummings Inc.

Former owner and Chief Executive David Allen testified Tuesday that the now-defunct company is teetering on bankruptcy as a result of the crash, and has no assets or ability to pay damages.

“It’s gone. R.P. Cummings is destroyed,” Allen said during a sentencing hearing in Superior Court.

Allen, 49, of Camarillo told Judge Donald Coleman that he cashed retirement accounts and ran up credit cards to pay initial cleanup costs and attorney fees.

The crash occurred after an R.P. Cummings driver lost control of the tanker truck on a steep grade near Santa Paula and crashed into a rain-swollen ravine, spilling about 6,840 gallons of crude oil. The driver, Patrick Hildebrand, 41, was killed.

Two months after the crash, Allen said, the company’s primary client, a subsidiary of Enron Corp., pulled its contracts. Allen said he was forced to shutter the business and lay off 15 employees.

During a four-hour hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Wold presented evidence to show that the Feb. 28, 2000, crash and resulting oil spill polluted miles of streambeds, killing at least 149 fish and threatening wildlife along Santa Paula Creek.

A state Department of Fish and Game biologist testified that oil was carried to the Pacific Ocean, posing a threat to the migration of endangered steelhead trout.

“There was a significant environmental disturbance,” Wold said..

And the trucking company should foot the $240,349 bill, she contended. That sum includes $77,000 in habitat damages, $134,464 in cleanup costs and a $2,700 state fine.

Ventura attorney Robert McCord, who represents the trucking firm, said the damages were inflated and impractical because the company cannot pay them. McCord said the prosecution has shown no sensitivity toward Allen or his predicament.

“We seem to care a lot more about stickleback fish than people,” he said.

But Judge Coleman ruled that R.P. Cummings, which pleaded guilty to a Fish and Game code violation, should pay for damaging the state’s natural resources. The sentence, deemed a civil judgment, means the state will likely become a debtor in bankruptcy proceedings.