Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, March 4, 2021:
Trucking fleet owners charged with falsifying logs, lying to investigators after fatal crash
Two former owners of a since-closed trucking company, Westfield Transport out of Massachusetts, have been indicted on charges of falsifying the fleet’s log records, instructing drivers to falsify their logs and lying to investigators in the wake of a fatal crash that killed seven in June 2019.
The two men face up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million if found guilty. Dunyadar Gasanov, aka Damien Gasanov, 36, was indicted on one count of falsification of records, one count of conspiracy to falsify records and one count of making a false statement to a federal investigator. Dartanayan Gasanov, 35, was indicted on one count of falsification of records. Authorities allege that, in the weeks leading up to the crash, the Gasanovs falsified their drivers’ logbooks and instructed at least one other employee at Westfield to falsify logs, too.
A new entrant audit conducted of Westfield by the U.S. DOT in 2016 shows that the company at that time was operating eight power units.
A report issued in December by the National Transportation Safety Board says the driver, 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovzkyy, was operating a 2016 Dodge pickup towing a car-hauling trailer. The NTSB report indicates he was under the influence of “multiple drugs” and alcohol at the time and had a history of impaired driving. NTSB concluded Zhukovzkyy should have had his CDL revoked by the state of Massachusetts before the crash occurred.
Zhukovzkyy was running a paper log at the time of the crash, but the company broadly employed KeepTruckin’s e-log app at the time in AOBRD form. The crash occurred prior to the December 2019 date by which all drivers were required to transition from AOBRD- to ELD-spec devices. NTSB says the company manipulated KeepTruckin’s hardware and software so as to falsify their logs.
The FMCSA conducted a compliance audit of Westfield two months after the crash and cited the carrier for AOBRD violations.
