The DOT announced updates on several to trucking-related crimes in the last week.
Here’s a quick look at each:
Driver pleads guilty to not disclosing accidents to carrier, FMCSA
Driver Arnold Williams of Raleign, N.C., pleaded guilty in January to charges of making false statements on an FMCSA-required form in a driver employment application.
Williams violated federal law in April 2013 by not listing any previous accidents on the form, the DOT says.
Williams, at the time of application, had been charged with reckless homicide and possessing an open alcohol beverage container, according to the DOT, after he was involved in an accident in January 2013 that killed one person and injured three others.
Conviction made in reincarnated carrier scheme
Lacey Lewis of Macon, Ga., has been convicted of conspiracy to violate an imminent hazard out-of-service order issued in 2008.
Lewis assisted Devasko Lewis, doing business as Lewis Trucking Company, in continuing to operate under two other companies (Eagle Transport and Eagle Trans) after Lewis Trucking had been shut down by FMCSA. The shutdown followed a crash in Alabama that killed seven people — which FMCSA says happened due to “serious violations” by Devasko Lewis.
Pennsylvania drug tester debarred after fraud scheme uncovered
A Pennsylvania-based medical examiner has been debarred from FMCSA’s list of approved medical examiners following the discovery that she falsified drug and alcohol tests of commercial truck drivers. Pope operated Eastgate Laboratory Testing and conducted drug tests for fleets in the area, including pre-employment, random and post-accident tests.
She was sentenced to eight months house arrest and ordered to pay $109,000 in restitution in December.
FMCSA determined that between 2008 and 2012, Pope used a computer-generated signature of a doctor who no longer worked at Eastgate to sign FMCSA-required paperwork.
Security guards plead guilty in CDL test-taking scheme
TWo security guards in Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty in January to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection to a “widespread fraudulent CDL test-taking scheme,” the DOT says, that was busted recently in New York.