United Group Insurance

Long haul trucker involved in immigrants’ deaths shouldn’t have been driving

News

July 25th, 2017 by Ric Hanson

(Updated 7/26 6:45-a.m.) — A congressman says a truck that carried dozens of immigrants, 10 of whom died, passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint around two hours before it was discovered in the parking lot of a San Antonio, Texas Walmart. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had been informed by law enforcement that the truck driven by James Matthew Bradley Jr. cleared the Interstate 35 checkpoint north of Laredo around 10 p.m. Saturday. Police arrived at the Walmart parking lot at 12:23 a.m. Sunday. Cuellar said he didn’t know whether immigrants crossing into the United States illegally were loaded into the truck before or after it crossed the checkpoint. The station is 29 miles north of the border, along the interstate that links Laredo and San Antonio and is a primary north-south route in the United States. It’s equipped with license plate readers and dogs that sniff vehicles heading north.

Court records show James Bradley, Jr., had been cited repeatedly for violating federal motor carrier safety regulations in Iowa dating back to 1995. At least two of the tickets were for logging more hours than allowed.  His most recent infraction came in April 2013. He was ticketed for violating a rule that bars truckers from driving longer than 14 hours without a break. The citation shows that he was driving for Pyle Transportation. He was fined $127.50. The records show Bradley also received tickets for violations of federal safety rules following stops or inspections in 2011, 2010 and 1995. They included a “maximum hours of service violation” for driving too much without rest in 2010.

And, the state of Florida had suspended commercial driving privileges for a truck driver three months before he was arrested for driving a tractor-trailer so hot and so crammed with immigrants that 10 people died. Alexis Bakofsky, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, confirmed Tuesday that the agency disqualified James Matthew Bradley Jr.’s commercial driving privileges in April when he failed to file an updated medical card. Federal law requires commercial drivers supply the card to show they are physically fit for the road. Bradley’s driving record shows he was issued a commercial driver’s license in Florida in 2004. Bakofsky confirmed the Florida license was disqualified indefinitely. Bakofsky also says it would have been illegal for him to have held a second license from another state.