The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ordered Billings, Mont.-based Rimrock Stages Inc., doing business as Rimrock Trailways and Rimrock Stages, to immediately cease operations and declared the carrier to be an imminent hazard to public safety.

FMCSA initiated an investigation of Rimrock Stages and determined the company does not have adequate safety management practices to ensure that its commercial motor vehicles are systematically and properly inspected, repaired and maintained.

FMCSA also found that Rimrock Stages failed to repair its commercial motor vehicles in a competent manner, failed to ensure that its mechanics are knowledgeable and qualified, failed to ensure that its commercial motor vehicles meet minimum safety standards and knowingly dispatched vehicles with safety defects. These patterns of violation substantially increase the likelihood of serious crashes, which endanger Rimrock Stages' drivers, passengers and the motoring public.

FMCSA inspected eight commercial motor vehicles operated by Rimrock Stages last week and discovered serious noncompliance and safety defects during every vehicle inspection. During the inspections, FMCSA discovered 79 violations of federal safety requirements, including 33 violations that individually required the vehicles to be placed out of service. Each of the eight vehicles inspected was ordered out of service.