Company Admits Overloading Truck

Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, Dec 06, 2006

Ashland-based Appalachian Fuels admitted fault in an overweight coal truck accident that killed a Martin County reverend two years ago.

Appalachian Fuels, LLC and its foreman Scott D. Sturgill were criminally cited in Pike County for allowing a coal truck owned by Hall's Trucking Company to carry 88,150 pounds more than the legal limit on March 7, 2004.

That day, the truck, carrying 150,150 pounds of coal on a road with a 62,000 pound weight limit, was involved in an accident that killed Preece. The driver, Blacklog resident Charles Wiley, Jr., hauling the load on a narrow two-lane highway from Appalachian Fuels in Hardy to Cattlettsburg, swerved suddenly and hit Preece's vehicle head-on. Wiley couldn't stop the truck because it was overloaded, authorities said.

The civil suit is still pending against Wiley, the Inez-based Hall Trucking Company and its owner Robert Hall. The trial for the remaining defendants is scheduled to be held in Martin County in May 2007.