"Reincarnated" Companies Put Dangerous Vehicles Back on the Road

October 16, 2009

A recent report has revealed that several commercial vehicle companies that had been fined and ordered out of service have ignored federal safety regulations and put their vehicles back on the road.

October 16, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- "Reincarnated" Companies Put Dangerous Vehicles Back on the Road

Article provided by Butler, Wooten & Fryhofer, LLP
Visit us at http://www.butlerwooten.com

A recent General Accountability Office (GAO) report has revealed that several commercial vehicle companies, including bus lines and trucking companies that had been fined and ordered out of service in 2007 and 2008, have ignored federal safety regulations and put their vehicles back on the road.

Bus Lines Continue to Operate Unsafe Vehicles Under New Names

Many of these businesses have avoiding paying fines and performing the required corrective actions by forming new companies or "reincarnating" their businesses under new names. According to a preliminary analysis by the GAO, as many as 20 of the approximately 220 bus companies that were fined and ordered out of service by federal regulators in 2007 and 2008 continued to operate under new corporate names.

In the summer of 2008, a bus owned by a Texas company that had used this tactic was involved in an accident resulting from the use of retread tire in violation of federal safety regulations. The Texas bus crash ended up killing 17 people and being one of the country's deadliest bus accidents.

Commercial Trucking and Tractor-Trailer Companies Also Implicated

In addition to bus lines, the GAO investigation turned up more than 1,000 commercial trucking firms believed to be "reincarnations" that continued to operate under new names after they were cited for safety violations and assessed fines.

Investigators found companies in at least nines states -- Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New York, and Washington -- had used this tactic and put unsafe vehicles back on the road.

In addition to unsafe or poorly maintained vehicles, many of the implicated companies were cited for violations such as improper licensing of drivers and failed drug or alcohol tests. Combined with typical safety issues such as excessive driving hours and driver fatigue, these violations make trucking accidents especially dangerous and more likely to lead to catastrophic injuries.

GAO Hopes to Identify Additional Violators

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to identify bus lines and tractor-trailer companies that operate after being fined or ordered out of service. Thus far, investigators have only been able to identify offending companies by matching new information to older corporate filings.

In the future, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration hopes to use new oversight measures to compare new corporate filings with those of older companies that have been fined or have been ordered to cease operation. The hope is that these comparisons may avert the next deadly bus or tractor-trailer accident by identifying companies attempting to "reincarnate" themselves and preventing them from evading safety regulations.

Article provided by Butler, Wooten & Fryhofer, LLP
Visit us at http://www.butlerwooten.com

---
Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com