LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. — Nationwide, as new trucking companies emerge, federal regulators are finding it difficult to keep up, according to an investigation by WBIR's sister station in Denver.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration inspects and regulates commercial carriers, but Zach Cahalan, the executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition said the FMCSA doesn't do enough to make sure small, or new trucking companies operate safely.
"They're not even set up to even adequately ensure that the new carriers coming in even know what they're doing," Cahalan said.
In February 2022, Christopher Savannah, a semi-truck driver, fatally crashed into Sgt. Chris Jenkins, a Loudon County Sheriff's Deputy. Federal authorities said he shouldn't have been behind the wheel in the first place.
Savannah's driver record shows he is prohibited from driving commercial vehicles because of a failed drug test in March 2020.
In March, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Organization said Koboat Trucking was an imminent hazard, and ordered the company to stop operating commercial vehicles.
In the order, the FMCSA said Savannah was hired even though he was not licensed to drive, and Koboat Trucking didn't make sure he wasn't on drugs while driving. Tennessee state troopers said Savannah admitted to smoking marijuana around four hours before the crash that killed Sgt. Jenkins.
The company received its license to operate in 2019. The FMCSO said the company had not monitored the hours Savannah drove, and inspectors found that it violated similar rules in 2021.
The order also said after the fatal crash which killed Jenkins, federal investigators discovered that the company's brakes and tires were not up to standards.
Savannah is charged criminally in the crash, for vehicular homicide, among several other charges. His case is set to go to trial in May 2023.