Arnold Safety Blog

By now, you may have heard about the fatal bus crash, which happened last Friday, August 8 just north of Dallas, TX on US 75. A bus, carrying a tour of Vietnamese Catholics heading for Missouri, blew a tire around 12:45am, careened off the road, onto its side, ultimately killing 17 of the passengers. While the investigation is still on-going, it has been reported that a recapped tire on the steer axle blew, sending the bus out of control. It is illegal to use recapped tires on the steer axle of buses.

Here is an article giving you the basics from last Friday. The operator of the bus, Angel Tours, USDOT #544466, 1505 Telephone Rd., Houston, TX, had been placed Out of Service (OOS) on June 23 due to an Unsatisfactory rating generated from an audit on May 1, 2008. Rather than correct the problems identified in the audit, owner of Angel Tours, Angel De La Torre, simply started a new company called Iguala Busmex, USDOT #1786461, 1504 Telephone Rd., Houston, TX.

At the time of the accident, due to the fact that Iguala Busmex had not filed insurance paperwork with the FMCSA, Iguala Busmex was not qualified to operate outside of Texas. In reality, Iguala Busmex should never have been qualified to operate outside of Texas, because it was really just Angel Tours, which was Out of Service.

Where to start with this one? FMCSA looks very bad here. They placed Angel Tours OOS June 23, and six weeks later one of their buses is upside-down on the side of the road with 17 dead inside it. The fact is, FMCSA is not designed to handle the Angel De La Torre’s of the world. Changing company names goes on all the time. I discovered this while I worked at FMCSA, and I see more of it now that I’m on the other side of the fence. A marginal carrier, with a poor safety history is seeking a fresh start? Start a new company, get a new DOT#, and boom! Pure as the driven snow, operate as before, business as usual.

FMCSA has been historically lax in enforcing its Out of Service orders. Their process is, more or less, send out a certified letter, and deactivate the DOT#. Once in a great while, they might make a personal visit to the OOS carrier, just to make sure they’re not operating. At present, FMCSA does not have the personnel, or the desire to follow-through on the De La Torre-types to make sure they’re not operating.

It takes a staggering amount of work for FMCSA to catch guys like De La Torre who are ignoring their orders. First, the FMCSA division office has to determine how they’re operating, who owns the new company, who owns the equipment, is it substantially the same as the old company? This takes work. Then, if they think it’s the same company, they have to convince their bosses and attorneys in the regional office to follow-through. More work. FMCSA bosses, in general, don’t like work, and they hate losing in court, so they are ultra-conservative when it comes to pursuing scumbags like De La Torre. If FMCSA does decide to pursue action, the FMCSA attorneys have to go to court, usually hand-in-hand with the Department of Justice, seeking an injunction against the scumbag skirting the OOS Order. Much more work. An incredible amount of work.

Chasing down one of these scumbags can occupy a whole FMCSA office for weeks. It’s not as simple as just breaking out the handcuffs. One of the things FMCSA does not have is law enforcement powers. If you violate one of their Orders, nobody is going to put you in jail the next day. Ultimately, you could end up in jail, but it takes a long, long time, which is the point. FMCSA does not follow-through on their OOS Orders due to lack of manpower.

I would expect some serious fallout from this crash. We’re already starting to see some it. FMCSA has now declared Angel Tours/Iguala Busmex an “imminent hazard”, prohibiting them from operating anywhere. This is slightly different from the previous Order issued which only prohibited Angel Tours from operating outside the State of Texas. Of course, declaring Angel Tours an “imminent hazard” is kind of closing the door after the horse is gone.

I would expect a number of things to happen. It’s going to become much more difficult to get a DOT number. It will probably be harder to get Unsatisfactory ratings upgraded. No FMCSA official wants to be the guy who upgraded a De La Torre, and then find them in a big wreck. Carriers that are placed OOS will be scrutinized heavily to make sure they don’t move across the street and keep operating. FMCSA will probably become more aggressive in issuing Out of Service Orders. Back in the day, the agency used to issue “imminent hazard” Orders routinely. Now it only happens after someone gets killed. I predict the agency will start using these type of Orders again

None of this will happen tomorrow, as government moves very slowly. But as the investigation continues, and NTSB and Congress weigh-in, expect a crackdown from FMCSA.