The North Kansas City-based semi tractor-trailer driver charged with reckless homicide in a deadly crash last month in Indianapolis lied to get his job.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, announced Thursday that Bruce A. Pollard presented “an imminent hazard to public safety” and was barred from operating a commercial motor vehicle.
The decision was based on Pollard’s “blatant and egregious violations of [federal safety regulations], local operating laws … and ongoing and repeated disregard for the safety of the motoring public … substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death to you and the motoring public,” according to an FMSCA out-of-service order.
Pollard, 57, worked for Weston Transportation, which is located in North Kansas City and had a lengthy history of careless driving, the FMSCA said in announcing its decision.
According to its investigation, Pollard was “disciplined and later terminated in April 2019 by his previous employer for repeated instances of unsafe driving.” He did not disclose that portion of his employment history, the fact that he was fired or the reasons for his termination in applying with Weston Transportation in June 2019, a federal crime.
“Pollard falsely certified on his job application that he had not previously been involved in a crash,” the FMCSA’s statement said. “It is a violation of USDOT/FMCSA regulations to make fraudulent or intentionally false statements on a federally required, safety sensitive, document.”
He was served with the federal order declaring him to be an “imminent hazard” on Aug. 2.
Pollard was speeding in a tractor-trailer through an active work zone on Interstate 465 near Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis on July 14 when he slammed his semi into a line of stopped traffic.
Three people, a mother and twin toddlers, were killed and seven other people were hospitalized with injuries from the crash and resulting fire that erupted.
Indiana State Police arrested Pollard, who was charged with three counts of reckless homicide and one count of reckless operation of a vehicle in a highway work zone.
Weston Transportation again declined comment to 41 Action News about Pollard or the deadly incident in Indianapolis.
