Company Admits Overloading Truck

Ashland, Kentucky-Appalachian Fuels admitted fault in an overweight coal truck accident that killed a Martin County reverend two years ago.

After reaching a confidential settlement in a Martin County wrongful death suit filed by Rev. Lonnie Preece's widow, Doris Preece, the company revamped it's stance of innocence and plead guilty in Pike County to one count of permitting the unlawful operation of a overweight motor vehicle on a highway.

Appalachian Fuels, LLC was criminally cited in Pike County for allowing a coal truck owned by Hall's Trucking Company to carry 88,150 pounds more than the legal limit on March 7, 2004.

That day, the truck, carrying 150,150 pounds of coal on a road with a 62,000 pound weight limit, was involved in an accident that killed Preece.

The driver, Blacklog resident Charles Wiley, Jr., hauling the load on a narrow two-lane highway from Appalachian Fuels in Hardy to Cattlettsburg,swerved suddenly and hit Preece's vehicle head-on. Wiley couldn't stop the truck because it was overloaded, authorities said.

Attorneys on both sides would not disclose the monetary amount of the settlement.