Setting the record straight (Publ. 05/04/07)

An article about the tanker truck that

crashed and burned a section of the MacArthur Maze suggested a California

Highway Patrol officer had direct knowledge about repairs to the truck. CHP

Officer Dave Casey was speaking in general about how trucks address safety

violations. The article also misstated that officers at CHP inspection stations

inspect trucks randomly. All trucks that enter stations are fully inspected.

The tanker truck that erupted into a fireball and melted an Oakland freeway was one of the most trouble-prone in its company fleet, having been cited 27 times in the past 2 1/2 years.

In the past 15 months alone, the California Highway Patrol ordered the truck off the road for carrying too large a load, for driving on balding tires or for having a problem with the exhaust system, according to federal truck safety records obtained by MediaNews. The truck was also cited, but not sidelined, for problems with its braking system.

“It just raises a flag for all of us,” said Richard Henderson, director of government affairs for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, an association of state and federal officials who promote motor vehicle safety in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Whether these problems had anything to do with Sunday’s crash is uncertain. Officials at the scene of the crash on the MacArthur Maze – a web of elevated connector ramps near the Bay Bridge – have said only that it appears from skid marks that the driver was speeding.

Speeding drivers, however, are one of the biggest factors in truck crashes, according to a 2005 Department of Transportation study. And if a vehicle malfunction is to blame – which is not often – bad brakes are responsible 30 percent of the time. Tanker trucks are also among the most prone to rolling over due to excessive speed.

Tanker No. 94’s recent safety problems contributed to a sudden rise in serious safety violations for Sabek Transportation, a South San Francisco company that owns a fleet of eight trucks that haul gasoline from a refinery in Vallejo to the company’s 20 or more Gas and Shop stations through the Bay Area every day.

In addition to brake problems, the wrecked tanker’s citations included problems with lights and improper placarding of its hazardous materials certification. Overall, the CHP issued 60 violations over the past three years to the company’s eight trucks.

Sabek, which has received a satisfactory safety rating from the state over the years, did not return phone calls Wednesday.

The firm’s trucks went from being ordered out of service once out of every four inspections in the 2004-2006 period, to three times out of every four, or 75 percent of the time over the past year. That’s three times the national average.

“We’ve just got to look more into what’s behind that 75 percent rate because that’s way above the norm,” Henderson said.

Problems with brakes are the most common cause for inspectors’ citations to trucking companies. A MediaNews review of data on nearly 500,000 truck inspections in California during 2005 found that many other trucks from numerous companies were also penalized for brake problems several times in that year.

CHP commercial officer Dave Casey, who is posted at the Interstate 880 truck inspection site near Fremont, said most, if not all, of the truck’s violations were probably corrected shortly after they were cited. Trucks are required to stop at CHP inspection stations, where they are weighed and inspected randomly. Minor violations are common and most citations are issued at these stations.

“On most violations, truck drivers are supposed to finish their destinations and then take care of the problems before reloading and going back out on the road,” according to CHP officer Rod Rodriguez.

CHP has a strict monitoring system of checks and balances, he said, including sending warning notices to trucking companies and making random checks of inspection records, Casey said.

Traffic has been diverted since the crash Sunday when driver James Mosqueda, 51, lost control of his truck, which was hauling 8,600 gallons of gasoline on the overpass connecting I-80 east to I-880 south around 3:40 a.m.

The truck dragged along the guardrail, sparking an explosion and 2,000-degree fire that melted the connector between I-580 and I-80, just above where he crashed.

State officials said Wednesday they hope to have the 80-to-880 ramp fixed within 10 days. While it will take time for investigators to sift through the debris, CHP officials have said they believe Mosqueda drove faster than the ramp’s 50 mph speed limit at the time of the crash.

Mosqueda had a clean driving record for the past decade, according to CHP records.