Trucking Company Involved in Explosion Ordered off the Road

By JOAN LOWY, ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Oct 7, 2016, 5:30 PM ET

A trucking company that was recently involved in an explosion while hauling automobile air bag inflators was ordered to take its vehicles off the road Friday by federal regulators who said they found a long list of serious safety violations.

Industrial Transit Inc. of LaGrange, Georgia, must immediately halt all operations because the company poses "an imminent hazard to public safety," the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said.

One of the company's trucks was hauling inflators made by Takata Corp. in August when it crashed, caught fire, exploded and destroyed a house near the small Texas border town of Quemado. A woman in the house was killed, four others were injured and several other houses damaged. The truck was speeding while approaching a curve when the crash occurred, the agency said.

The small trucking company recently used drivers without commercial licenses, did not perform required drug and alcohol tests, and didn't follow the requirements of its license to haul hazardous materials, among other violations, the safety administration said in its out-of-service order.

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