VALLEJO (KRON) — Officials with the California Highway Patrol spent much of Monday with a trucking company based in Vallejo; checking to see if it has corrected a list of violations.
The company, Roby Trucking, was the owner of a truck that killed a big-rig driver in March, when the truck crashed into an empty Mexican restaurant in Pittsburg.
According to Pittsburg police, officers responded around 8:20 a.m. to the 3800 block of Railroad Avenue to what witnesses described as an explosion. The crash into the building caused considerable fire damage, Pittsburg police Capt. Ron Raman said.
Firefighters also responded and extinguished the fire and the big-rig driver was found dead, Raman said.
A preliminary investigation has found that the big-rig was traveling north on Railroad Avenue when it struck two vehicles and then the building, which became engulfed in flames, according to Raman.
Police are looking into the possibility that a mechanical failure in the truck caused the crash.
Even before that crash, Roby Trucking had been on the CHP’s radar.
“The first inspection found maintenance records and procedures were out of compliance not being done with what is specified by law; letting unsafe vehicles on the roadway . Those issues were fixed by the time we reinspected in January. However, they had other problems with their driver records, terminal records and their substance abuse testing program,” CHP officer Daniel Hill said.
Spot road inspections were also a cause of concern for CHP officers. “They include problems with steering brakes and other critical systems that cause a vehicle to be unsafe on the roadway and several of the roadway inspections we did on this trucking company revealed trucks were placed out of service after those inspections,” said Hill.