RALEIGH, N.C. — The truck driver whose failure to maneuver an oversized rig through a railroad crossing derailed an Amtrak train and injured 55 people this week is a convicted felon with a long history of traffic citations, court records show.
John D. Black, 43, has been cited for at least a dozen traffic violations, including speeding and driving with a revoked license, according to records reviewed and confirmed by the Associated Press.
In Illinois, Black was arrested in December 2012 and charged with exceeding the permitted weight limit on his load. He was quickly released on a $177 secured bond, but then failed to appear in court the following month.
Black also served prison time in 1997 after being convicted of felony child abuse in North Carolina, and his other criminal convictions include assaulting a woman, violating a domestic violence protective order, and repeatedly writing worthless checks.
Black does have a valid commercial driver’s license, but did not need to pass a criminal background check to get it, the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles confirmed Wednesday.
No charges have yet been filed against Black in relation to Monday’s crash.
As workers finished clearing debris from the derailment site in Halifax, N.C., investigators were piecing together why emergency dispatchers apparently weren’t told that Black was struggling to negotiate a tight turn across the tracks with a load nearly 16 feet wide and tall, weighing 127 tons and stretching for 164 feet.
The locomotive’s ‘‘black box’’ was recovered, and investigators will review the state permit that enabled Guy M. Turner Inc. of Greensboro to exceed length and weight limits while hauling the electrical distribution facility to New Jersey.