Safety violations discovered for trucking company involved in fatal crash that killed BCSO sergeant

As the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office continues to mourn the loss of Sgt. Michael Schlattman, who was killed during a traffic stop when a semi-truck hit his patrol car, Target 7 found the trucking company involved has a history of safety violations.At Schlattman's memorial service last week, colleagues praised him as a true leader in the field."He was known for being a true leader in the field, like you saw him today on the traffic stop," they said.The Rio Rancho Police Department, investigating the crash, determined in a preliminary report that the semi-truck driver failed to yield to police vehicles, and low visibility due to glare may have been a factor. The driver has not been charged.Target 7 has learned that Freightstar Expedited LLC, the trucking company based in West Chicago that operated the involved semitruck, has over 100 severe safety violations nationwide, according to reports from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Of these violations, 41 were related to unsafe driving, including speeding, reckless driving, and failure to obey traffic laws. Although Freightstar had no deadly crashes in the last two years before February's incident, it had four crashes involving injuries.KOAT legal expert John Day said the company's past violations could lead to a lawsuit. "Well, the history of those kind of violations, the safety violations that this company has, it's going to come into play more significantly in a civil case against the trucking company by the estate of the sergeant, if that's what takes place," Day said.Freightstar has already been sued for a prior crash involving injury. In a lawsuit filed in Kansas federal court, a woman claims she was hit by a semitruck owned by Freightstar, resulting in serious injuries and the destruction of her car. Court documents allege the truck driver was speeding and not paying attention to his surroundings. The suit is ongoing, with the latest filing on Monday.Day noted that the company's practices could be significant if criminal proceedings occur. "If there are criminal proceedings, if the driver can say, well, I was pressured by my company to bend the rules or break the rules, or cut corners, things like that, that's certainly significant," Day said. "No indication that that's happened. But in other situations, we've seen that where there's a death, and that's caused by some type of recklessness."Target 7 has reached out to Freightstar Expedited LLC for a comment on its safety record, but the company has not responded.