The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Georgia-based Judson Mobley Logging to immediately cease all transportation services, declaring the truck company an imminent hazard to public safety.
The shutdown order follows an extensive review of the three-truck company's operations by FMCSA, which found multiple violations of drug and alcohol testing, driver qualifications and vehicle maintenance rules.
On April 30. 2012, a logging tractor-trailer being operated by Judson crashed into an escorted tractor trailer carrying a military airplane on U.S. 301 in South Carolina. At the scene of the accident, the South Carolina Transport police officer placed the company's vehicle out of service for defective brakes - the second time in a year. The officer discovered 20 other vehicle maintenance violations.
The crash came after the DOT had already ordered the company to cease operations for safety violations.
The company also has "an alarmingly high vehicle maintenance score of 99.8% and a driver fitness score of 98.1 %" under the FMCSA's CSA system. Its drivers have been cited for driving a commercial motor vehicle while disqualified and expired/none medical examiner's certificate during the past 24 months.
FMCSA did an on-site compliance review last November and gave the company a proposed "Unsatisfactory" rating for not having a maintenance program or driver qualification files or an alcohol/drug testing program. On Jan. 30, it gave the company a final "Unsatisfactory" rating and ordered the company to cease operations after it failed to correct those safety violations.
The company may be assessed civil penalties of up to $16,000 per day for each day it continues the proscribed interstate or intrastate operations after the effective date and time of the order. Criminal penalties maybe imposed, including a fine of up to $25,000 or imprisonment for a term not to exceed one year, or both.
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