A Virginia-licensed truck driver has been effectively shut down by the U.S. DOT after being involved in a fatal accident in June while allegedly being in “egregious violation” of hours-of-service regulations.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shut down Carlos Alberto Garcia, who the agency says on June 24 drifted into a caution-striped, paved median on I-495 near Washington, D.C., and struck two individuals who were re-securing a boat they were hauling on their trailer. One of the people was killed. The other was seriously injured, FMCSA says.
Virginia State Police found in their investigation that Garcia had been on-duty and driving for more than 103 hours over the previous eight days at the time of the crash, with only one 10-hour off-duty period taken.
Additionally, the previous day, Garcia reportedly crashed a different truck he was driving into the back of a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bus, causing numerous injuries to passengers, according to FMCSA’s report.
