The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week ordered two trucking companies and one driver to stop operating as imminent hazards to public safety. The orders were triggered by flagrant disregard for hours of service and other safety regulations.

Oak Park, Mich.-based Highway Star Inc. was ordered to immediately cease operations, along with one of its drivers, Ibrahim Fetic, after Fetic caused a March 2 fatal crash.

Fetic was on Interstate 65 in Hardin County, Ky., when he rear-ended a passenger vehicle, killing six people and injuring two others. A post-crash investigation found that Fetic had been driving well in excess of HOS regulations and had falsified his record-of-duty status log. 

FMCSA also found that Highway Star failed to require its drivers to comply with HOS regulations. It also allowed or required its drivers operating CMVs in interstate commerce to falsify their logbooks and failed to preserve these records.

A copy of the imminent hazard out-of-service order can be viewed at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/about/news/2013/HighwayStar-IH-Order-signed.pdf.

The FMCSA also shut down General Trucking Inc., Atlanta, as a result of an investigation after its trucks were involved in a series of crashes and found it was dispatching grossly overloaded trucks, had drivers without CDLs, did not follow drug testing regulations and was not monitoring hours of service compliance.

On March 11, 2013, FMCSA began a comprehensive investigation of the company because the carrier had four alert BASICs placing it in the top percentiles for poor safety performance: Unsafe Driving (100%); Hours of Service Compliance (95%); Driver Fitness (99.9%); and Crash Indicator (96.8%).

During the past four months, the company was cited for operating overweight motor vehicles in 39 out of 48 roadside inspections. On December 18, 2012, the Florida Highway Patrol issued an overweight citation to because the vehicle was 15,440 pounds heavier than the manufacturers’ GVWR. On December 5, the South Carolina State Transport Police issued an overweight citation because the vehicle was 26,500 pounds heavier than the manufacturers’ GVWR.     

A copy of the imminent hazard out-of-service order can be viewed at www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/about/news/2013/GeneralTruckingInc.pdf