In an election season it does take some courage for a federal agency to actually take a potentially life saving action with the backdrop of unrelenting criticism of "government regulation" from the tee-party republikins.
In this instance our favorite newspaper to the North, the Baltimore Sun, has covered the story well and perhaps more importantly featured a story on the front page of the Sunday Sun bringing to the public's attention the damage that unregulated companies like Gunthers can do. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-gunthers-victims-20111119,0,4541637.story
It chronicles the story of Brian Buber who was catastrophically injured in a crash on the Capital Beltway in 1994 involving a tractor trailer owned by....you guessed it, a predecessor to the present Gunthers entity. The Gunther tractor trailer crashed into the rear of a pickup, killing a passenger and permanently rendering Mr. Buber brain damaged and disabled.
One would think that at least the justice system would make it possible for Mr. Buber's medical care to be taken care of but despite a 13 million dollar verdict, that was not to be. Gunthers maintained a one million dollar insurance policy and declared bankruptcy for the other 12 million dollars.
And Gunthers, well they just found a new corporate entity to operate under despite the fact that its head, Mark David Gunther, was found guilty by a federal court jury of perjury and falsification of documents and was sentenced to prison.
So it was abig deal when the FMCSA shut down Gunthers last week and endeavored to eliminate the ability of it to reconstitute. It can't change the fate of Mr. Buber but perhaps it can save lives for Maryland drivers. For more see https://www.maryland-law.com/blog/fmcsa-shuts-down-maryland-commercial-trucking-firm-as-public-hazard.cfm
Post A Comment