A New Jersey tanker truck company linked to a fiery crash that destroyed a section of I-95 this week was involved in a similar incident in 2015 — just a few miles away from the site of Sunday’s blaze.
During the 2015 crash, NBC10 reporters found that federal records showed the company was “not authorized” to haul hazardous materials across state lines. As of this week,maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicated that TK Transport was still “not authorized” to operate in an interstate capacity.
Such carriers could still legally loan out their vehicles to authorized companies for interstate transport, he said. But if the company is indeed not authorized for interstate transport, he said, that could be a major factor in lawsuits that stem from the crash. “There’s been a constant tension between too much regulation and not enough regulation. Sometimes that’s a political issue, sometimes it’s a finance issue,” he said. “It is the carriers themselves, the private companies, that have the obligation to make sure they are in compliance with the rules.”