Mexico Trucker Online

Federal safety officials Monday ordered Iguala BusMex and Angel Tours Inc. to cease commercial operations while last week's fatal accident in North Texas is investigated.

After last weekend 3 bus crashes, resulting in 20 fatailities and more than 50 injuries, FMCSA seems to have gotten the message.

Iguala BusMex Inc. was awaiting approval for a federal license when one of its buses crashed near Sherman on Friday. The company is run by Angel de la Torre, who also operates Angel Tours Inc., which was forced to take its vehicles out of interstate service June 23 after an unsatisfactory review by federal regulators

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has stopped granting licenses nationwide for new bus companies as the agency tries to get its computer systems up to speed to cross-reference applicants properly, administrator John H. Hill said Tuesday.

“We’re trying desperately to set up IT systems that alert us to critical things like addresses, phone numbers, names that sound similar,” he said. “We’ve been testing it. We just haven’t got it fully implemented yet.”

“What we’re trying to do is respond to things that we’re finding, and the thing we’re finding is people are getting creative, so we need to be creative in finding solutions,” Hill said, adding he did not anticipate the new license suspension to last for long.

The federal agency has come under fire for failing to see that Iguala BusMex was simply an offshoot of Angel Tours, with the same address and operator. Iguala BusMex had received a U.S. Department of Transportation number but had not been approved for operation at the time of the accident

Prosecutors said this week said they would consider bringing charges against the owner of the bus company if investigators find evidence of criminal activity.

Evidence of criminal activity? Let’s see! Operating without authority. Driver with expired med certificate. Retreads on steer axle? Seems to me that is a good starting point. People have been indicted and convicted for less.

Liberty Tours called an “Imminent Hazard” by FMCSA

Federal regulators on Thursday ordered a San Antonio firm tied to the Houston bus operator involved in last week’s deadly crash in Sherman to sever its relationship with the troubled motor carrier.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration declared Liberty Charters & Tours of San Antonio an “imminent hazard” after discovering the company had been leasing and operating buses owned and maintained by Angel de la Torre’s Iguala BusMex and Angel Tours companies as well as using the Houston carrier’s drivers.

“Liberty Charter’s use of passenger vehicles which are subject to the egregiously deficient maintenance procedures of Angel Tours and Iguala BusMex and Angel de la Torre places its drivers and the motoring public at continued and substantially increased risk of serious injury or death,” the agency’s order issued Thursday stated.

Agency Administrator John Hill said his agency learned of Liberty through records seized from de la Torre’s Houston offices.

Liberty is not being shut down, only halted from doing business with the troubled Houston companies, Hill said.

“Liberty does not show up in our records as having a bad safety rating,” Hill said.

The federal order states that Liberty Charters uses drivers also employed by Angel Tours and Iguala BusMex and noted the responsibility to qualify the driver and maintain a file on each driver rests with the original employer.

The Houston companies used drivers who did not furnish an employment application, and it failed to keep their employees state commercial driver’s license record on file, or conduct background investigations.

First Lawsuits have been filed

A man whose wife was injured and whose mother-in-law and sister-in-law were killed in a bus crash near Sherman last week sued the bus manufacturer, owner and driver Wednesday in state district court.

State District Judge John T. Wooldridge granted a request included in the suit that prevents the bus or other evidence — including a blown front tire suspected as the cause of the accident — from being altered until Pham’s attorneys and their accident experts can investigate them.

“The physical evidence, the bus, the tire tell a story,” said Rob Ammons, Lau Pham’s attorney. “It’s going to tell us what happened in the crash.”

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 25.

The lawsuit, filed in state district court, names Angel de la Torre and his bus firms Angel Tours Inc., Iguala BusMex Inc., Iguala Bus Ltd. Co. It also names Barrett Wayne Broussard, who was behind the wheel at the time of the deadly crash, and Motor Coach Industries Inc., the bus manufacturer.

The suit states that de la Torre and his firms were negligent in failing to properly maintain the bus and its tires and wheels, as well as training Broussard. It also states that Broussard was negligent because he did not inspect the bus and operated it with a recapped tire. Regulations prohibit recapped tries on the steering axles of commercial buses.

The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages related to medical costs.

Was the company insured?

Federal investigators are unsure if the bus was insured.

Angel Tours had an insurance policy of $5 million, records show.

Iguala, on the other hand, appears to have no insurance.

One of the questions federal investigators, regulators and eventually civil attorneys will have is whether Angel Tours’ $5 million policy can be transferred to cover Iguala.

What this points to is not the need for Senate Bill 2326, the Motor Coach Safety Act, which in fact has little to do with bus safety.

Enforce existing laws. Hire more Commercial Vehicle inspectors and let them do their jobs. To hell with the inconvenience to the passengers for the bus having to go through the scale and an inspection. It is a hell of a lot more convenient that death!