A Utah tow truck driver allegedly attempted to cover up the "wholly inadequate" way he secured a bulldozer that crushed a CEO and his daughter to death, say authorities.
Michael John Love, 51, of Love's Towing in Ogden, Utah, is accused of driving a tow truck with a 32,000-pound bulldozer – 4,300 pounds over the weight limit of his truck – wrongly attached to the back of the vehicle in July.
"The dozer was secured with one small chain on the back and with the tow-hook winch on the front," Love's arrest warrant read, according to KTVX-TV. "This method of securing the dozer was wholly inadequate for retaining the weight of the dozer in place."
Love was driving up a canyon while Lifetime Products CEO Richard Hendrickson, his daughter, Sally, and other family members were traveling in the opposite direction.
The bulldozer Love was towing allegedly slid off the truck when both parties approached a curve. The machinery allegedly fatally crushed Richard and Sally, and seriously injured another passenger, the warrant read, according to the station.
Responding officers purportedly witnessed Love trying to add additional restraints to the tow truck after the incident.
Surveillance footage at a nearby gas station allegedly captured a lack of restraints securing the bulldozer to the truck, despite Love's alleged claim there were six chains holding down the dozer.
Love allegedly tried to pin the incident on the victims, claiming their vehicle crashed into him.
"The fact that some of Michael Love's first actions after the crash were to attempt to place more chains into the scene to indicate the bulldozer was secured properly, demonstrates that he knew the bulldozer was not properly secured," the warrant stated, according to KSL-TV.
Love was arrested in October on two counts of second-degree manslaughter, one count of aggravated assault with serious injury, and two counts of obstructing justice, KSTU-TV reported.
It's unclear if he entered pleas to the charges.
