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Texas-based one-truck carrier ‘done with trucking’ after crash, FMCSA shutdown order

Koboat Trucking Accident

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has effectively shut down Houston-based Koboat Trucking following an accident in February that killed a Tennessee sheriff’s sergeant. Christopher Savannah, the driver for Koboat Trucking who was involved in the crash, was also shut down recently by FMCSA.

On February 3, 2022, Savannah crashed in Tennessee and killed a Sergeant from the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office. The driver ignored a rolling roadblock and crashed into two cars before killing the sergeant, who had stopped to remove a ladder obstructing the roadway.

According to FMCSA, Savannah did not have a CDL, was prohibited from operating commercial motor vehicles due to a previous positive drug test and was arrested for being under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash. 

A subsequent FMCSA review of Koboat Trucking found the carrier to be “egregiously noncompliant” with multiple safety regulations, FMCSA said, including: controlled substances and alcohol use and testing (49 CFR Part 382); commercial driver’s license standards (49 CFR Part 383); driver qualification (49 CFR Part 391); hours of service of drivers (49 CFR Part 395); and vehicle inspection, repair and maintenance (49 CFR Part 396). 

Koboat owner Frederick Boateng noted the situation capped a three-year stint in trucking after Boateng went into business with just a single truck in 2019. That truck remains “impounded in Tennessee,” where the accident happened, and Boateng’s started wading into the process of selling equipment and exiting the business entirely, he said. 

“I’m so down since this happened,” he added, noting he at least tried to run the business right. He pointed out he carried valid insurance, which can’t be said for a Florida-based carrier, Pereda Express, whose insurance was invalid at the time of a 2019 accident that damaged Boateng’s truck severely while parked at a truck stop. FMCSA records indicate Pereda’s authority had been revoked and invalid for the first part of that year, before being reinstated January 29, 2019. The authority was revoked a year later, after Boateng filed a complaint about the carrier’s lack of insurance. The DOT number associated with that carrier remains inactivate.

“It cost me $28,000 to fix the truck” at that time, Boateng said, and now this. It’s “too much for me. Enough is enough. I am done with trucking.”  

FMCSA auditors found Koboat “took no action to ensure its driver was eligible to drive; had it done so, it would have discovered that the driver was not properly licensed, and was prohibited from driving its truck due to a drug test conducted in March 2020 that came back positive for marijuana.” 

No safety-management controls were in place at the company, the agency added, and the company didn’t have a “program to detect and deter the use of controlled substances” by its driver, nor a “program to ensure its drivers were qualified and licensed…, a program to control its drivers’ hours of service,” or “a program to ensure its vehicles were appropriately inspected and repaired.”

The agency issues the imminent-hazard declaration, shutting the company down because, FMCSA said, “Koboat Trucking exercised virtually no oversight” over its driver and equipment, “and thus abdicated all responsibility for safety.”

This story was updated March 8 with further detail from FMCSA about violations its auditors found after an on-site evaluation.

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