Florida cancels 500 trucker licenses

In a nationwide scandal, drivers paid to pass exams. A Tampa truckers school was closed and two employees indicted.

By JOUNICE L. NEALY

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2000

The state has canceled the drivers' licenses of more than 500 truckers as investigators unravel a scandal involving a Tampa firm suspected of helping drivers get licenses for cash.

Notices canceling the licenses went out last week. Another 650 truckers have been told they have until July 28 to retake the Florida test or lose their licenses.

"Obviously, safety is our No. 1 concern," said Sandra Lambert, Florida's director of the Division of Driver Licenses. "We don't want somebody out there who doesn't know how to drive a truck."

National concern over truck drivers' licenses was sparked by a 2-year-old federal investigation of a bribery scheme that had its roots in Illinois and has now reached some 20 states.

During the Illinois investigation, a secretary in Chicago alerted authorities to a large number of truckers who had exchanged Florida licenses in Illinois. That led to charges against employees of a Tampa truckers school, REACT Inc., who were accused of accepting bribes to pass more than 1,000 drivers.

In April, the FBI accused Hilary Marek Winniczek of REACT Inc. of helping Eastern European immigrants skirt driving test requirements.

Winniczek and a second REACT employee, Tony A. Puleo, were indicted last month on charges of taking bribes in exchange for passing drivers' license applicants.

REACT is one of 450 commercial drivers' license examiners that administer the road skills portion of the test for the state.

Examiners are supposed to observe applicants to make sure, for example, that they turn properly, use proper signals and follow safety regulations. If the driver passes, the examiner signs a waiver, certifying that the road skills portion of the test was passed. The applicant takes that to a state driver's license office and takes the written portion of the exam.

But investigators said that Winniczek and Puleo never gave the road test to many of the applicants, but still issued the waivers in exchange for money.

"He was simply selling the waiver," Lambert said of Winniczek, who investigators say was paid between $900 and $1,500 for each waiver. He also was accused of helping would-be drivers pass the written test by reading the test to them and signaling the correct answers.

The state has closed REACT. Lambert said that state officials will decide later this week whether to allow REACT to reopen.

The probe of illegitimate truckers' licenses was launched in the aftermath of a 1994 highway accident in Wisconsin that killed six children and involved a driver accused of illicitly obtaining his license in Illinois. In all, 32 individuals have now been charged in the investigation and 28 have been convicted.

Nationally, federal and state investigators in Florida and Illinois have identified nearly 3,000 people with suspicious commercial drivers' licenses from the two states. Federal prosecutors say hundreds of unqualified drivers traded bribes for passing grades on license tests.

Many of those drivers have exchanged their licenses for new ones in other states. Now, safety officers nationwide are tracking down drivers who may be barreling down highways without ever having proved they can maneuver a huge truck.

Florida already has issued alerts for the truck drivers with invalid licenses into a national database. Once officials check the license in the database and see an alert, the drivers are detained.

Lambert said Monday that of the nearly 800 truckers notified last month, almost 300 either retook the exam or gave up their commercial permits. Eight failed the exam. The remainder never responded, she said.

On Friday, Lambert said the state got a few calls from truckers at weigh stations in other states, saying, "Help, my lettuce is rotting."

But "we do realize that many times truckers are on the road for long periods of time, so we're going to work with people to assess them any time we can," Lambert said. It's possible, she said, that some truckers did not get the 30-day notice to retake the exam.

Now, a second batch of truckers with possibly illegitimate Florida drivers' licenses will be asked to retake the test.

The state mailed about 650 notices last week to truck drivers who may have obtained their drivers' licenses illegally. Those drivers have until July 28 to retake the test or they will lose their licenses.

In Illinois, an additional 587 commercial licenses have been either canceled or downgraded to normal licenses.

- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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