Owner pleads guilty to illegal work on cargo tankers

The owner of a tanker truck repair company pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about an illegal repair his company made to a cargo tanker.

Loren Kim Jacobson, who owns tanker testing and repair company KCCS Inc., was accused of violating the Hazardous Material Transportation Act after one of his employees was severely injured in 2018 when a tanker exploded from residual flammable material in its tank, according to OSHA.

In his plea agreement, Mr. Jacobson admitted to working on cargo tankers hauling flammable materials despite not having the proper certification and training to do so. He also admitted to sending employees into cargo tankers to weld patches from the inside so that the illegal repairs would not be visible from the outside, without following OSHA’s confined spaces safety standards.

Mr. Jacobson is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25. He faces up to 10 years in prison.