Posted On: August 31, 2010 by Steven J. Malman

FMCSA Orders Trucking Company Involved in Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash That Killed 11 People to Cease Operations

According to TruckingInfo.com, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered trucking company Hester off the road. The order was reportedly issued in June. Hester was involved in a deadly semi-truck collision on I-65 in Kentucky last March that claimed 11 lives.

Per a state police report trucker Kenneth Laymon may have been taking on a cell phone and speeding when he drove his 1999 Freightliner truck that was pulling a 53-foot semitrailer over a 60-foot wide grass median, struck a four-cable guardrail barrier, hit a 15-passenger van, drove over other travel lanes and struck a stone wall. His tractor-trailer would go on to burst into flames. Killed in the tractor-trailer accident were Laymon and 10 of the people riding in the van, most of them Mennonites from the same family.

Investigators have been trying to figure out whether Laymon went on any rest breaks from the time that he departed Lansing, Michigan for Cullman, Alabama. The catastrophic tractor-trailer collision occurred during the 13th hour and approximately 243rd of a 690-mile route that Laymon was driving. Unfortunately, the trucker’s log book was destroyed in the blaze and the truck did not have an electronic board recorder.

Following the catastrophic truck crash, the FMCSA audited Hester Inc. The federal agency ordered the trucking company to cease operations after failing to remedy “critical violations.” The FMCSA says that Hester used truckers before getting back their pre-employment drug tests results, let drivers operate their vehicle beyond the 11-hour federal limit for truckers, and allowed a truck driver who was suspended following a roadside inspection to continue driving. The trucking company cannot reopen its doors for business until the FMCSA deems that it is “fit” to do so and it gets back its registration.

Our Chicago tractor-trailer accident lawyers represent truck crash victims and their families in Cook County, Will County, Lake County, and DuPage County, Illinois.

Trucking firm ordered to halt operations after Munfordville accident that killed 11, Courier-Journal, September 1, 2010

FMCSA Orders Alabama Carrier Off the Road and Following Fatal Accident TruckingInfo, September 7, 2010

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