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Raid On Truck Driving School Exposes Training Issues

Thursday, June 8, 2006 – updated: 6:26 pm EDT June 8, 2006

Two thousand truck drivers on Central Florida roads may have little or no training. Thursday, state troopers raided an Orange County truck driving school accused of selling licenses to drive big rigs.

The raid at the business on East Oak Ridge was part of a six month investigation. Many of the drivers who earned certificates at C and L Solutions failed at other trucking schools. Thursday, the owner and manager of C and L were arrested.

The state first began to scrutinize C and L when an audit found that no one ever failed the trucking exams there. At other trucking schools, the failure rate was as high as twenty percent.

When troopers looked further, they found there was not much to the behind-the-wheel training.

The owner of C and L Solutions, Victor Cosme, is facing nine felony charges. So is the manager, Robson Coco. Troopers said both men put aspiring truck drivers behind the wheel of big rigs for what was supposed to be a week of training on merging into traffic on the highway and stopping quickly.

Undercover troopers found the training missed a lot.

"One of them, the certification was as easy, as he drove a tractor trailer from their testing facility to a gas station for fuel. Drove back to the facility and he was signed off as a qualified motor carrier," said Sgt. Jorge Delahoz, Florida Highway Patrol.

"I'm stunned. I'm stunned," said Beatrice Alavera.

Alavera has worked for C and L for five years. She was not arrested and said she has never seen anything improper.

"We're a school. We train them. We train them to the best of our knowledge. If they don't get it right, we get it right for them," she said.

Many of the truckers who got it right with C and L had failed tests at other trucking schools. The school had a zero failure rate. Employees credit a quality program.

Troopers said large organizations like the school districts typically conduct their own safety tests to weed out bad drivers who held a commercial driver's license, but some drivers with little or no training may be out there.

"The people we have to worry about are the independents, the ones working for independent or mom and pop organizations. They may not have the same training as a big organization," Delahoz said.

All 2,000 drivers who earned a license at C and L will be receiving a letter from the state warning them there is an issue with their certification and will have to get recertified.

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