ATLANTA -- A CBS 46 investigation caught a Metro Atlanta contractor breaking the law over and over again without anyone at the city taking notice.

The Dream San Recycling company was been paid millions of taxpayer dollars by the city of Atlanta and other local cities and counties to recycle and pick up waste.

But state safety records show them putting dangerous and broken trucks on the road time and time again.

Former employee Bonnie Cox said even brakes would frequently go out while she was driving.

With early morning routes, she worried about the children around them en route to their bus stops.

“Sometimes that truck wouldn’t even stop, and we could’ve run right into a house or hit a school bus or anything,” Cox said.

CBS 46 uncovered five years of state documented safety violations against Dream San, including broken headlights, broken brake lights, broken tail lights, bald tires, missing doors and missing seat belts. In several cases, a complete loss of brakes was documented. Seventy-three violations were recorded in just the past three months.

Cox said, “When we’d tell them something was wrong with the truck, they wouldn’t fix it.”

Georgia’s Department of Public Safety pulled many of the Dream San trucks over on the highway during random inspections.

Several of the trucks were in such bad shape they were actually pulled off the road on the spot. But nonetheless, records show the same trucks back on the streets, without repairs, and without a city or state follow—up.

Since 2005, the city of Atlanta alone has paid Dream San nearly $9 million for curbside recycling. Atlanta’s contract demands that Dream San “comply with …safety laws.” Dream San is contracted by the city of Clarkston and approved for residents in Decatur and Fulton County.

Dream San wouldn’t talk about the violations, but City Councilwoman Ann Fauver did. “It’s a hazard to both their employees and our citizens,” Fauver said.

No one at the city had ever seen the state reports. Fauver said she was surprised to see the safety reports, adding, “The state pulled them over, but the state doesn’t tell us they pulled them over.”

Under current Georgia law, compliance ultimately falls on Dream San.

“They’re ultimately responsible for making sure that their vehicles are in safe condition to put on the public highway,” Bruce Bugg with the state Motor Carrier Compliance Division said.

Dream San will lose the city of Atlanta contract, not because of safety but rather money. In the midst of the Atlanta budget crisis, the city will now handle its own recycling, cutting back to biweekly service.