Thread: illegal alien BUS DRIVER charged with 23 counts of HOMICIDE!

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/new ... 945264.htm

Posted on Wed, Oct. 19, 2005

Relatives say driver in deadly Texas bus explosion scapegoat

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

Associated Press


ESCOBEDO, Mexico - A driver charged with negligent homicide after his bus caught fire while evacuating nursing home patients from Hurricane Rita is being made a scapegoat, his family said on Wednesday.

Juan Robles Gutierrez, 37, was charged in Texas on Monday with criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers.

"They are accusing him of the deaths because he doesn't have the resources to defend himself," said Robles' brother, Carlos, who lives in Escobedo, a suburb of Monterrey.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department has hired San Antonio attorney George Shaffer to represent his brother, Carlos said.

The bus, owned by Global Limo Inc. of Pharr, Texas, caught fire from a malfunctioning back wheel. After the fire started, oxygen tanks used by some of the people on the bus began exploding. Nineteen people survived.

Juan Robles was taken into federal custody on an immigration violation five days after the Sept. 23 explosion near Dallas.

"First they said he was a hero and now they say he's responsible for the deaths of those elders. It's just not fair," said Robles' mother, Maria Teresa Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said her son told his family he was able to carry three people off the bus but couldn't do more after the oxygen tanks started exploding.

Texas investigators have said they found no evidence that Robles helped people off the bus, which was widely reported after the explosion.

Juan Robles began working for Global Limo Inc., which owned the bus and was hired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with Hurricane Rita's evacuation, in February, Carlos Robles said.

The company was shut down by federal regulators Oct. 7 as a hazard to the public.

"My brother is not a mechanic, he's just a driver " Carlos Robles said. "Whoever checked that bus should have known there was a problem. Why aren't they holding the company accountable?"

Juan Robles was a bus driver in Mexico for about 18 years until work dried up and he decided to leave his wife and a 13-year-old daughter to go to the United States, Carlos said.

"His only crime was crossing into the United States illegally to try to earn more money but it's not his fault that accident happened," Carlos said.

Each of the 23 counts of criminally negligent homicide carries up to two years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.

Bill O'Reily said he felt sorry for the bus driver last night on his show Trust me folks, the only person Bill is looking out for is his self.

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http://www.alipac.us/article-826-thread-1-0.html

www.mysanantonio.com

Family in disbelief over bus driver's plight

Web Posted: 10/30/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer
ESCOBEDO, Mexico â€â€

www.mysanantonio.com

Editorial: Fatal bus fire raises accountability issues

Web Posted: 10/30/2005 12:00 AM CDT

San Antonio Express-News
Last month's bus fire that killed 23 elderly nursing home patients who were being evacuated from Houston to escape Hurricane Rita left plenty of blame to go around.

Thus far, the only person criminally charged in the case is the bus driver, Juan Robles Gutierrez, 37, a Mexican national who has been in the country illegally since February.

As the bus driver, he was ultimately responsible for the safety and well-being of his passengers, but he is not the only who should be held accountable.

The owners of Global Limo Inc. of Pharr, the firm that dispatched a bus with an unlicensed driver to transfer the nursing home patients, deserve scrutiny.

Their bankruptcy filing earlier this year may have provided them protection from their creditors, but it didn't give them a blanket shield from operating in a safe and responsible manner.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, the state agency that regulates bus companies, should be held accountable, too.

Global Limo Inc. was allowed to continue operations despite the fact that its drivers had been found in violation of federal safety regulations numerous times in the past two years. Gutierrez alone had been stopped by DPS troopers three times in the seven months before the accident, the Washington Post reported.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an arm of the U.S. Transportation Department, also failed in its job to protect the public from unsafe transportation companies.

It was the last regulatory agency to review the Rio Grande Valley bus company for safety rule compliance, the Dallas Morning News reported.

It is inexcusable that federal agents would allow Global to maintain a satisfactory rating although, media reports revealed, its driver safety record was 97 on a 100-point scale â€â€