Truck driver in tanker explosion had history of violations

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - I-Team 8 did some digging to find out more about the company and the driver involved in Thursday morning’s tanker truck explosion.

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Indiana State Police said 73-year-old Ronald Tobias of Syracuse lost control of his Amerigas Propane LP tanker truck while driving on the ramp between I-69 and I-465.

Amerigas, which is headquartered in Pennsylvania, has had representatives working with authorities involved in the investigation into the crash.

Amerigas is the nation's largest propane company. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in the past two and a half years, the company has had 49 crashes in which people were hurt. In three of those crashes, people died.

I-Team 8 also obtained Tobias' official driving record. We discovered Tobias has four convictions for traffic violations the past five years. Three of them were for speeding. One was for failing to signal.

Two of the speeding violations occurred while Tobias was driving a commercial vehicle, both for driving over 70 in a 55 mile per hour zone. This past May, Tobias was also issued two disability placards to be placed in his vehicles.

As of Friday evening, Tobias remains in Methodist Hospital in good condition. He and his family have not wanted to speak to the media about what happened.