Posted on 09/29/2005 11:16:28 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Bus firm faced prior complaints, violations
12:42 PM CDT on Thursday, September 29, 2005
DALLAS - The firm that operated a bus that caught fire while fleeing Hurricane Rita, killing 23, was the subject of complaints by elderly passengers in 2002 who said vehicles reeked of fuel and were in disrepair, according to state records.
One of the three complaints against Global Tours and Charters, now Global Limo Inc., led to a state investigation that found several violations. No enforcement action was taken, according to 58 pages of records released Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
No one answered the phone at the bus company's offices Thursday morning. Mark Cooper, a San Antonio attorney for Global, did not immediately return phone calls.
A group of nursing home residents was being moved Friday from the Texas coast because of Rita's approach when their Global bus caught fire near Dallas. Investigators have said the fire could have been caused by mechanical problems, possibly with the brakes. It may have been fueled by patients' oxygen tanks.
The complaint that prompted the investigation, written by a man named Donald Spotts of Weslaco, was sent to the Texas attorney general and other state officials. He wrote that there was a "very strong odor of diesel fumes" during a 160-mile trip from Weslaco to Corpus Christi on one of the company's buses. The bus carried 48 seniors, Spotts wrote.
"The diesel smell was very unhealthy, pungent, overpouring and many of the passengers were caughing and wheezing both on the journey up and back," he wrote.
A separate complaint, a man named Ross Gunning, claims one of Global's buses was "swaying all over the road."
Another complainant identified as Sara Martinez wrote that "there is no particular bus, it is most of the buses in this company. This company's buses have oil and air leaks. They only have two buses that are in good condition."
A 2002 state inspection conducted in response to the complaints found several violations, including failure to implement an alcohol or controlled substances testing program, failure to retain inspection and maintenance records for a set period of time and failure to retain evidence of a brake inspector's qualifications.
The company, operated by James H. Maples, was required to make changes as part of an "educational contact" by state investigators.
"Mr. Maples was strongly adviced that Global Tours must comply immediately with all requirements of the regulations especially since their business is transporting passengers," according to an April 2002 intra-agency memo.
Maples informed the Texas Department of Transportation in May 2002 that Global had taken several steps since being visited by a state inspector, including the hiring of a compliance supervisor to oversee bus operations.
The 37 elderly patients from Brighton Gardens nursing home had boarded the bus Thursday afternoon and had been plodding inland for hours in heavy traffic. A threatened direct hit from Hurricane Rita on their low-lying town in Bellaire, near Houston, never happened. Rita ultimately hit land farther north, sparing the Houston area heavy damage.
Witnesses have described smoke filling the cabin after it pulled over early Friday on Interstate 45 south of Dallas. Soon, the bus was in flames, and a series of explosions -- probably medical oxygen canisters igniting -- fueled the flames and trapped most of the occupants inside.
The Mexican driver of the bus, Juan Robles Gutierrez, 37, was arrested Tuesday evening on immigration charges, the Houston Chronicle reported in Thursday editions. He was being held in McAllen.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the bus accident.
Wonder it the driver was getting a good enough wage to check for diesel leaks?
==================================
The Mexican driver of the bus, Juan Robles Gutierrez, 37, was arrested Tuesday evening on immigration charges, the Houston Chronicle reported in Thursday editions. He was being held in McAllen.
Check your bus before boarding . .
He was only driving the buses that Americans wouldn't drive. Prayers for the poor souls that were lost.
And you blame the driver?
Someone send a note to W thanking him for this tragedy.
The owners of the bus should be arrested.
For once I can accurately say, now THAT'S BUSH'S FAULT!!
Though North Carolina has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants, the state has one federal deportation officer who's among fewer than 10 people in the state who work for Detention and Removal Operations, a unit of ICE.
With the thousands of lost jobs people in the Gulf are now seeking, why not hire the qualified ones into the DHS to help round up and deport ILLEGAL aliens? Some could be officers, others do the paper work, and others drive the ILLEGAL aliens in buses to the border. Others could help build an actual border!
Bus ping!
I don't know what the rules are in other states, but in Virginia:
1)Driver must have a CDL to operate a vehicle capable of carrying more than 16 passengers. Probably a Federal law.
2)Driver must perform a pre-trip mechanical safety inspection of that vehicle per State AND Federal rules. Any problems that are found MUST be fixed before the vehicle can be lawfully operated.
So, this driver SHOULD have had a CDL and SHOULD have performed a pre-trip mechanical safety inspection.
If he did not, or was not competent to do it, then yes, the driver is to blame.
By the way, you can read all about CDLs and pre-trip safety inspections here:
http://www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/citizen/drivers/cdlmanual.asp
Has it been reported whether this driver had a CDL..and if so, how an illegal alien managed to get a CDL?
You can easily buy your way into a fake license in a lot of states.
Here in Indiana (hardly a hotbed of liberalism) they were selling them like fake Rolex's at the license branches.
IMHO the license branch is a crappy place to work, low paying with a lot of hassle. Easy for the workers to be tempted to boost their income handing out fakes.
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1968086
I will accept this a good faith assessment but do you have any idea what DOT requires of a company operating buses? Do you realize that they have a responsibility to check on the people they hire including things like:
Pre-employment drug testing
Background checks
Review driving record
Monitoring physicals and CDL’s to ensure that they are valid
Maintenance of driver file to ensure on-going compliance
I'm not even going to get into the host of other requirements that it seems that they were not meeting. This wasn't a driver with his own bus, this was a driver working for a company that appears to be in violation of a myriad of regulations, starting with putting an unqualified person behind the wheel.
I will accept this a good faith assessment but do you have any idea what DOT requires of a company operating buses? Do you realize that they have a responsibility to check on the people they hire including things like:
Pre-employment drug testing
Background checks
Review driving record
Monitoring physicals and CDL’s to ensure that they are valid
Maintenance of driver file to ensure on-going compliance
I'm not even going to get into the host of other requirements that it seems that they were not meeting. This wasn't a driver with his own bus, this was a driver working for a company that appears to be in violation of a myriad of regulations, starting with putting an unqualified person behind the wheel.
Which DOT agency does this fall under, FMCSA?
I think I may be a tad confused because it is a bus (fta), but it is a private company (??).
In that case the driver and the company can share the blame. Maybe the DOT and INS too.
Perhaps the DMV as well, if this guy had a fraudulent CDL.
Shady companies generally hire shady employees, and that's what it sounds like has happened here.
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