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Trucking News Article
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 Utah CDL fraud charges possibly linked to death of five near Pittsburgh
12/08/2003 - 2:04:15 pm
Utah federal prosecutors Dec. 2 indicted three independent contractors hired by that state to test truck drivers on charges they accepted forged documents or ignored procedures and gave CDLs to as many as 39 people, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Federal authorities also arrested 39 Utah truck drivers for using false identification to obtain a commercial license after an audit of 65,000 licenses showed the drivers` names did not match the Social Security numbers they used.
Among the people who received licenses from the contractors was Ejub Grcic, who was charged with running a stop sign July 7 and killing a North Carolina family about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney`s office in Utah.
Rydalch said it was unclear whether Grcic, a Bosnian immigrant from West Valley City, Utah, obtained his license illegally. Grcic, who was under house arrest in Pennsylvania awaiting a hearing, has not been charged in Utah, Rydalch said.
Grcic`s attorney, Zan Ivan Hodzic, said his client was being mentioned out of the thousands of drivers whose licenses were checked because of the accident.
"He is not a person who is in this country illegally or under invalid or forged documents," he said.
Hodzic said he couldn`t discuss how Grcic obtained his license, explaining it was part of the criminal case in Pennsylvania. He has said that Grcic had driven commercial trucks throughout Europe for more than 20 years before he came to the United States from Germany with his wife and two daughters in 1998, having fled Bosnia in 1994.
Pennsylvania State Police have said Grcic was driving a truck too heavy for the road and ran a stop sign, crushing the car underneath the trailer. The family`s car struck the truck`s fuel tank, triggering an explosion that ignited both vehicles.
Janet Kerr, 35, along with her three children, Kathleen A. Kerr, 13; Kenneth E. Kerr III, 4; and Alessandra S. Hall, 16, died at the scene. The driver, Janet Kerr`s husband Kenneth E. Kerr Jr., 35, died a day later in the hospital, police said.
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