Owner cited in fatal dump truck wreck

Three people died after a front tire blew out. There were problems with all of the truck's tires, the FHP says.

By LEANORA MINAI, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 16, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- The owner of a dump truck that blew a front tire and crashed on Interstate 275, killing three people last week, has been cited for operating an unsafe vehicle.

Cleveland Ferguson, 51, violated state and federal traffic safety regulations because the tire that blew out should not have been on the steering axle, said Lt. Steven Hough of the Florida Highway Patrol. Also, the treads on the other tires were so worn that their white cords, or fibers, showed, Hough said.

The truck was heading northbound on I-275 when its tire blew and it veered across the median, slamming into a 2001 Ford van headed southbound. The crash killed two Georgia men in the van and Joseph Brown, whom Ferguson had hired to drive the truck.

Ferguson, who runs a truck lot at 4636 Freemont Ter. S, denied blame for the accident.

"God knows for sure what really caused that crazy accident," said Ferguson, whose son was a passenger in the dump truck and the only crash survivor. "Why, because they can't find out, they're going to throw me under the bus? I'm not going to go with it."

Ferguson, who does not face criminal charges, must appear in Pinellas County Traffic Court at 10 a.m. June 13.

The FHP said after the crash that the front tire that blew had been recapped, which is permitted but not considered safe on a steering axle. Recapping is retreading a tire -- grinding the worn rubber off the casing and molding a new slab of rubber around it. It costs as little as half the price of a new tire and must be done by a licensed shop.

But on Wednesday, the FHP said the tire that blew out had been "regrooved," which means someone had cut new tread or grooves into the existing rubber.

Harvey Brodsky, managing director of the Tire Retread Information Bureau in California, said regrooved tires are responsible for "more catastrophic accidents than you can shake a stick at." If the new tread is cut too deep, the tire's belt can be damaged, he said.

"If he goes a millimeter deeper than he's supposed to," Brodsky said, "he damages the integrity of the tire and it becomes a rolling time bomb."

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