MAY 12, 2015
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV)
The attorney for the driver of a cement truck charged
criminally in the crash that killed a father of two said the records don't tell
the whole truth.
The daily inspection sheets obtained by the Channel 4 I-Team
raised more questions about why the truck was allowed on the road the morning
of the crash.
The 911 calls revealed the panic in witnesses and coworkers
of Sergio Lopez after a Nashville Ready Mix truck failed to stop on Cheatham
Dam Road and rushed toward them as they attempted to fix a broken trailer.
“I need the rescue. I need the ambulance. I need everything
down here on Cheatham County Road. It's bad,” one witness told dispatchers
during a 911 call.
Lopez was killed in the accident.
A Channel 4 I-Team investigation has uncovered internal
inspection records showing how for months prior to the crash, the driver,
Robert Ashabrunner, had documented daily problems with the truck.
However, Ashabrunner's attorney said that doesn't mean the
truck was dangerous.
“He got in the truck and drove it,” said attorney Ed
Yarborough. “Now, if a man has any thought that that truck is dangerous, does
he get in that truck and drive it every day? I don't think so.”
The Channel 4 I-Team began investigating the company after
obtaining the deposition of Donald Meadows, a co-founder of Nashville Ready
Mix, who said the company knew for weeks of existing problems with the truck's
braking system.
“They've known it for three weeks,” Meadows said in the
deposition. “They run that truck with busted air bags.”
The inspection records of the truck showed not weeks, but
eight months of documented problems.
An inspection record from September 2012 said “Need brakes –
Can't Stop.”
Day after day “Need new brakes – can't stop on a hill,” was
entered on the reports.
The truck was still driven daily, sometimes more than 100
miles a day.
For almost seven months, it was documented that it leaked
air real bad.
Remember what the co-founder said?
“They run that truck with busted air bags,” Meadows said in
the deposition.
A Nashville Ready Mix mechanic said in an interview with the
Tennessee Highway Patrol, also obtained by the Channel 4 I-Team. “We got air
brakes. That's part of the brake system. If you've got an air leak, it doesn't
leave the company.”
The mechanic later told the THP that the truck should have
never left.
Why did the truck leave? The mechanic said drivers share
inspection reports with the plant manager, but that “No one ever got hold of
him” to tell him about the air leaks.
The mechanic named Carlton Moseley as the plant manager who
dispatched the truck.
“We plead not guilty. We expect to be found not guilty,”
said Mark Olson, Moseley's attorney.
Moseley, Ashabrunner and Nashville Ready Mix are charged
with vehicular homicide in the case.
“He was the man driving this truck. If there was something
wrong with those brakes, doesn't he have a sense of responsibility for what
happened with the accident?,” Channel 4 I-Team chief investigator Jeremy Finley
asked Yarborough.
“There are two or three assumptions in the question, and I
would say yes to your question, but there are assumptions there that are
probably not the truth,” said Yarborough.
Ashabrunner's attorney said when Lopez and his crew were
repairing the trailer that morning they were in the road and no cones were put
up to alert drivers of the repairs.
Yarborough said even if the brakes were fully functioning,
nothing could have stopped that crash.