Following a fatal crash involving one of its trucks in April, other drivers for Davis Transfer Co. Inc., headquartered in Carnesville, GA, and law enforcement officials are raising red flags about the company’s safety practices.

In April, a driver for Davis Transfer rear-ended a vehicle driven by Marva Jean Daniels, 63, whose vehicle became engulfed in flames following the crash, according to the Florida Highway Patrol’s report.

The FHP report stated that the Davis Transfer driver, Michael C. Cross, 35, was attempting to merge onto Interstate 4 near mile marker 29, when Daniels’ vehicle slowed and was traveling at a very low speed.

Cross was unable to slow or stop and collided with Daniels’ 2005 Ford Focus. He sustained minor injuries in the crash

Sgt. Steve Gaskins, public information officer for the FHP, told Land Line the driver of the truck was admittedly on his cellphone at the time of the crash.

Davis Transfer has two terminals in Georgia and one in Lakeland, FL. The company has 250 power units and 251 drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website.

Recently, Gaskins said an FHP trooper with the Bureau of Commercial Vehicle Enforcement conducted a field interview with a Davis Transfer driver who was stopped at a northbound scale house near Miami.

According to the report, the driver alleges that Davis Transfer “has their employees drive over their hours and tells them to use ‘off duty’ time for loading of trucks.”

The Davis driver also stated that they have been told to transport hazmat cargo with no placards and that trucks are also told to bypass weigh facilities because they run from 82,000 lbs to 85,000 lbs with no permits. According to the FMCSA site, Davis Transfer doesn’t have its hazmat authority.

On the company’s website, Davis Transfer began “transitioning” its fleet over to using electronic logs in 2009.

In the company’s CSA profile, nearly one-third of the violations recorded under the fatigued driving BASIC were related to the electronic logs. Of the company’s 22 fatigued driving violations, seven were the result of devices either not meeting the information requirements or the information not being available at all.

As of press time, officials at Davis Transfer hadn’t responded to Land Line’s request for comments.