Logging Truck vs. Car Accident Risk Leads to FMCSA Shutdown Order

FMCSA finds trucking company to be imminent safety hazard

Every year logging truck accidents result in serious injury and wrongful death:

• A driver who fell asleep at the wheel crashed his tractor-trailer loaded with logs into a house.¹ A 5-year-old boy, asleep on a couch, was killed instantly.
• A truck driver hauling a load of timber lost control of the truck, causing the logs to be dumped onto Interstate 95 at Port Orange, Florida. A car, mail truck and tractor-trailer hauling combustible chemicals then hit the logs and crashed into each other.² The tractor-trailer burst into flames, fatally burning the driver. The drivers of the other vehicles were seriously injured.
• A logging truck driver hit a car at an intersection. The driver of the auto suffered blunt force trauma and open fractures.³ She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ordered Judson Mobley Logging, Inc., a Georgia company (not involved in the accidents above), to immediately cease all transportation services. The shutdown order followed an extensive review of the company’s operations by FMCSA, which found multiple violations of drug and alcohol testing, driver qualifications and vehicle maintenance rules.

“Safety is our number-one priority,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We will not allow commercial truck companies that recklessly disregard safety to continue operating on the nation’s roadways.”

FMCSA had to force a shut down Judson Mobley Logging after safety investigators discovered: 1) that the company continued to operate its vehicles in violation of a previous agency order to cease transportation services for an unsatisfactory safety rating; and 2) that numerous safety infractions, including driver qualification and vehicle maintenance violations, increased the likelihood of serious accidents resulting in personal injury or wrongful death.

1. 1.     Jackman Maine Logging Truck Accident: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/20/news/mid-maine/investigation-continues-in-fatal-logging-truck-accident-in-jackman/
2. 2.     Port Orange, Florida Timber Load Car/Tractor-Trailer Accident: http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/flagler_news/042612-Interstate-95-log-truck-crash-fatality
3. 3.     Logging Truck and Car Crash in Augusta, Georgia: http://www2.wjbf.com/news/2011/nov/29/5/breaking-news-deadly-logging-truck-accident-report-ar-2773556/