2 Trucking Officials Plead Guilty in Welder’s Death

LOS ANGELES —  Two Orange County men pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. Federal District Court to charges of allowing a welder to repair a gasoline tanker that exploded and killed him.

Carl Bradley Johansson, 40, of Newport Beach and George Granados, 50, of Anaheim pleaded to conspiring to violate and violating regulations that bar gasoline tankers from being repaired at facilities with no permits, said Assistant U.S. Atty. William Carter. The men, he said, hired a welder without proper certification in September 1993 to fix a leaking gasoline tanker at their Montebello facility. The welder was killed in an explosion ignited by his welding torch inside the tanker.

Johansson also pleaded guilty to additional charges that he allowed drivers to work longer than permitted by law, then fabricated driver logs to cover it up, Carter said. Federal regulations prohibit commercial drivers from driving more than 10 hours a day.

“These tankers are dangerous on the road, so if they flip over because a driver is fatigued, you got a major hazard on you hands,” Carter said. “People are concerned about the transportation of hazardous materials on their roads . . . because those tankers are literally bombs.”

Johansson is the former owner and president of a private trucking business that operated collectively as Atlas and under the names Petroleum Delivery Service, Ash Inc., Ash Transportation, Atlas Carriers Inc. and Atlas Bulk Inc. Granados was vice president of Atlas.

The men will be sentenced June 10 and could receive fines as high as $250,000. Johansson faces up to 15 years in prison and Granados faces a maximum penalty of five years, Carter said.