A federal government analysis gave an Alabama trucking company co-owned by U.S. Rep. Bob Riley low ratings on driver safety and safety management practices, The Huntsville Times reported. The congressman touted his business experience in his campaign for governor.

The newspaper reported Saturday that the violations committed by Midway Transit, which employs 25 truckers, included falsified trucker logs and failure to perform required random drug tests on drivers.

Riley, the Republican candidate for governor, said the violations were clerical in nature. He said they arose between the time his business partner, Joe Mattox, died in summer 2001 and when Riley hired the firm's current manager about three months later.

Mattox managed the firm after Riley was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996. "As long as Joe was there, I never gave it a second thought," Riley said.

SafeStat Online, a web site run by the U.S. DOT, recently reviewed the firm' s state and federal safety records. Midway ranked among the worst 11 percent of all carriers surveyed nationally in two of the four categories - driver safety and safety management practices.

SafeStat reviews going back to March 2000 show Midway consistently scored among the worst 26 percent of carriers nationwide in the category of driver safety.

Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman and Riley both claimed victory Thursday morning. At the center of the standoff: apparently faulty vote reporting in heavily Republican Baldwin County.

After initially being declared the winner by AP, Siegelman's numbers were lowered after computer data packs from polling places were rerun because of a suspected error. At a news conference Thursday morning, Riley said the Baldwin County probate judge had certified results showing his winning margin statewide is 3,085 votes.

Riley said he had received a congratulatory call from President Bush, who jokingly told him: "Bob, 3,000 votes is a landslide in some races." A defiant Siegelman refused to concede Thursday morning.