Trucking company involved in fatal Texas crash has dozens of safety violations
The trucking company whose driver was involved in a fatal crash near Terrell that killed five people, including four members of a Fort Worth family, has a checkered safety record, according to federal audits.
At about 2:40 p.m. on June 28, Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni was driving an 18-wheeler east on Interstate 20 toward Terrell when, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report, he fell asleep and rear-ended a Ford F-150 carrying five members of the McKeller family of Fort Worth: Billy, 79; Zabar, 52; Krishaun, 45; Evan, 20; and Kason, 16.
Evan McKellar, who is in the ICU at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, was the lone survivor. Her parents, brother and grandfather died in the crash, and she had her foot amputated.
Another driver, 49-year-old Nicole Gregory of Dallas, was also killed in the crash, which involved seven vehicles and caused multiple non-fatal injuries. Gonzalez-Companioni was arrested and faces five charges of manslaughter, according to DPS.
Going back to 2023, Hope Trans LLC, the trucking company Gonzalez-Companioni was working for, has nearly three dozen violations on file with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for issues related to driver hours of service compliance. Hours of service limits are meant to reduce driver fatigue.
By law, interstate freight truck drivers cannot exceed 11 hours on the road. Their total workday, which can include things like loading their trailer and performing inspections, cannot exceed 14 hours. There are also rules requiring a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving and a 10-hour rest period prior to being on the road.
A representative of Hope Trans could not be reached for comment.
Driving violations paint troubling picture
Over the past two years, inspections of 267 Hope Trans drivers revealed 33 hours of service violations. These ranged from drivers not having an adequate supply of blank duty logs to track their hours to driving while fatigued, the most serious violation.
That lone fatigue violation occurred on Feb. 21 in Indiana. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration report said that driver also made a false report related to hours of service.
Attorney Kent Buckingham of the firm Buckingham and Vega, with offices in Texas and New Mexico, said these violations could indicate a larger issue with Hope Trans, and they are indicative of a much larger issue with the trucking industry as a whole.
“I think it’s a huge problem,” Buckingham said of driver fatigue. “That’s evidenced not only by the tragedy that you have in your community, but the tragedies that we see in every community with interstate trucking in this country. My firm is busy as all get out with trucking cases, and the vast majority of those trucking cases are the result, I believe, of fatigue behind the wheel.”
The problem, Buckingham said, stems from economic realities. There’s a financial incentive for drivers to work more hours, and the more loads they move, the more money the trucking company makes. Buckingham said there are “good companies” and “bad companies” out there. The good ones prioritize safety over profits, and they strictly enforce hours of service limits. The bad ones don’t, with tragic consequences in some cases.
In the same vein, there are “good” and “bad” drivers. Buckingham said good truck drivers far outnumber the bad ones, but he’s come across truckers who “cook the books,” keeping two copies of hours of service records: one to show the federal inspectors and another to turn into their company for their pay.
A former Hope Trans driver told WFAA-TV that he felt pressured to exceed hours of service limits by the company. He also said Hope Trans advised drivers to hide documents from investigators that might show they had violated hours limits.
When speaking to WFAA, the driver said he made a 1,900-mile trip from Atlanta to Phoenix in June in approximately 34 hours, with only three hours of sleep.
Health issues blamed for some truck crashes
Over his years specializing in accident and injury cases, Buckingham has observed that many truckers are overweight, partly due to the sedentary nature of their jobs. Based on a photo released after the June 28 accident, Gonzalez-Companioni appears to be heavyset.
“He’s got this massive neck,” Buckingham said of the driver, “and that is kind of a classic body habitus for sleep apnea. A lot of drivers that I’m involved with in terms of litigation that have caused wrecks, particularly fatal wrecks, they have that type of physical build, and they may not even realize that they’ve got sleep apnea.”
Sleep apnea is a restriction of the airway in the throat while sleeping. It causes difficulty breathing, which results in poor quality sleep. Because of this, Buckingham said, even drivers who are getting the required rest may still be fatigued when they’re on the road.
Buckingham didn’t say Gonzalez-Companioni has sleep apnea, only that the physical signs point to it as a possibility.
Sleep apnea, and the overall health and wellness of drivers, is something Buckingham said the trucking industry needs to be more concerned about.
Truck drivers have to get a physical examination at least once every two years to keep their commercial driver’s licenses, though they’re not required to undergo a sleep study to diagnose sleep apnea.
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Ideally, Buckingham would like the physical requirements for truck drivers to more closely mirror the stringent physical requirements for commercial airline pilots.
“The drivers who are behind the wheel of these 80,000-pound monsters sometimes, the scrutiny on their health needs to be increased,” he said.
Buckingham added that he has the utmost respect for the trucking profession, and he reiterated that the majority of drivers on the roadways are “outstanding.”
“I’ve met some drivers, particularly that I’ve used as experts, that have driven two, three million miles without a wreck,” said Buckingham. “So, there are exceptional men and women that are out there on the roads. That said, there are a number of drivers that are the exception, and they are a major problem that are causing death and destruction on our highways.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM.