FMCSA Suspends Authority of Company for Not Allowing Access to Records
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has suspended the operating authority of a single-truck motor carrier after it refused to provide access to company records for an investigation following a highly publicized fatal crash in the Chicago area.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has suspended the operating authority of a single-truck motor carrier after it refused to provide access to company records for an investigation following a highly publicized fatal crash in the Chicago area.
The carrier is Michigan City, Indiana-based Francisco Espinal Quiroz, which does business as Espinal Trucking.
On July 21, 2014, a tractor-trailer operated by Espinal Trucking collided into a line of passenger vehicles that had slowed in a construction zone along Interstate 55 in Will County, Illinois, killing four people.
According to published reports, truck driver Francisco Espinal-Quiroz had allegedly been behind the wheel for almost 12 hours. He faces two felonies for allegedly falsifying his log book and lying about his drive time. A U.S. citizen born in Honduras, he is the sole driver for the company, which he owns.
FMCSA investigators subsequently were denied access to company records by an Espinal Trucking representative. Under MAP-21, signed into law by President Obama in July 2012, FMCSA may revoke the operating authority registration of a motor carrier that fails to comply with an administrative subpoena or a letter demanding release of company safety records.
Related:
All That's Trucking blog: Chicago Truck Crash Triggers Scrutiny of Logbooks, Coercion
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