Trucker in jail for holding weigh station employees hostage at knife-point
The trucker, identified in the story as Samuel Ervin Brown (above), 49, of Columbia, S.C., reportedly took the two men hostage about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday after he was issued a citation and ordered to park his truck.
The Trucker News Services
11/4/2009
DENVER — Two employees of a port-of-entry weigh station at Fort Collins, Colo., north of Denver, were briefly held hostage by a knife-wielding truck driver, the Denver Post reports.
The trucker, identified in the story as Samuel Ervin Brown, 49, of Columbia, S.C., reportedly took the two men hostage about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday after he was issued a citation and ordered to park his truck.
According to Fort Collins police, Brown drove for Colonial Freight Systems, which is located in Knoxville, Tenn., according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Web site.
According to Mark Couch, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Revenue, a possible reason for the citation and order to park the vehicle was that Brown was out of hours. The Department of Revenue operates the port-of-entry weigh stations and includes the division of Motor Vehicles.
According to the FMCSA Web site, Colonial has 340 drivers and 328 power units. Data from the FMCSA SafeStat module shows the company has a Driver Safety Evaluation Areas (DRSEA) score of 89.02. FMCSA considers any DRSEA scores above 75 as deficient. An 89.02 DRSEA score would mean that only 10.8 percent of motor carrier fleets in the U.S. had a higher DRSEA, the FMCSA said.
The FMCSA Web site shows that in the past 30 months, the company has had 36 out-of-service violations for exceeding the 11-hour driving limit and 40 out-of-service violations for exceeding the 14-hour on duty limit.
“These folks [at the ports of entry] are on the front lines. They are there to protect the public safety. The drivers need to be sufficiently rested. The port-of-entry employees perform a very important safety function,” Couch told the Post.
No reason was given as to why Brown held the two employees hostage at knife point. Couch told The Trucker the two employees held hostage may have saved Brown's life because they were able to talk him into surrendering.
No one was injured and the incident only lasted about 10 minutes, the Post article stated. Brown was taken into custody by Fort Collins police and is being held at the Larimer County Detention Center for “investigation of two counts of kidnapping,” the article said.
Port-of-entry staff met Wednesday with a victims advocate from the police; it’s the first time such an incident has occurred there, Couch said.
The Trucker staff can be contacted to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.
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