Both drivers will be charged in a hotel shuttle bus-tractor trailer wreck that injured 17 people last month.
Arrest warrants were issued Monday for Yolanda Boles, the driver of the bus that slammed into an 18-wheeler on the morning of May 24, and Mario Cochran, driver of the tractor-trailer, police said. Neither Boles nor Cochran could be reached Monday for comment.
The shuttle bus ran into back of the truck as it made a U-turn on Loop Road near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, causing injury to Boles and all 16 of the passengers.
The shuttle owner said Boles shouldn’t have been behind the wheel.
“On that day, Ms. Boles mistakenly took command of a larger vehicle than one for which she was rated,” Michael Toye, owner of the shuttle company MTI Limos and Shuttles, said via email.
Boles is charged with operating a commercial vehicle with an improper license, as well as three counts of serious injury by vehicle, operating a vehicle with improper tires and operating an unsafe vehicle.
Toye’s attorney, John Austin, said Boles was driving on the commercial equivalent of a learner’s permit and did not have the Georgia commercial driver’s license required to operate a vehicle carrying more than 15 passengers. She was supposed to drive the bus only with a CDL-licensed driver aboard.
Cochran, the driver of the USA Truck 18-wheeler that Boles hit, also was charged with three counts of serious injury by vehicle and improper left turn for initiating that U-turn from the right lane against state law.
“Many of the trucking companies that put safety first do not allow their drivers to make uncontrolled U-turns at all,” said Joe Fried, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in traffic law. “Truckers are trained that they cannot begin to cross or enter traffic turns unless they can complete the maneuver without any other vehicles having to take any evasive action to avoid them.”
Police initially said Cochran made a legal U-turn. But, after an investigation, he was charged.
“We’re still talking with (state) traffic engineers because the road is not marked to prohibit a U-turn,” College Park Police Sgt. Keith Stanley said.
Still, Cochran initiated the turn from the right lane of Loop Road, which, according to state law, would render it illegal.
Investigators also determined that the bus Boles was driving had no brake fluid and the metal belts of the tires were showing through the outer rubber.
Maintenance records that MTI provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday showed that, just three days before the wreck, MTI maintenance staff marked all brake-related inspection checks “OK.” And no conditions were identified that would prevent safe operation of the vehicle.
Toye said Boles did contact maintenance staff on the day of the accident to report “soft” brakes.
“She was instructed to check the brake fluid level and, if it she found it to be low, to bring it in for fleet maintenance,” Toye said. “All MTI drivers understand that, if vehicle operation or safety is ever in question, they are to immediately take the vehicle out of operation and follow maintenance protocols.”
Of MTI’s 75 drivers on staff, 15 do not have CDLs and are supposed to drive only vehicles in the fleet that are not considered commercial passenger vehicles, officials said.
Investigators are still trying to determine the speed of the shuttle bus at the time Boles attempted to brake.
Boles remains employed with MTI, a company spokeswoman told the AJC, and Toye said all drivers are to be CDL-qualified within the next two weeks.
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