Thread: Records released in fatal Arizona bus crash

Records released in fatal Arizona bus crash

By The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 8:25 p.m.

PHOENIX — Two motorists say the bus involved in a deadly crash south of Phoenix last month was being driven so erratically that they called 911 shortly before it overturned.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety on Tuesday released more than 130 pages of investigative records about the March 5 crash that killed six of the 22 people aboard the bus that was traveling from central Mexico to Los Angeles.

The DPS records show a handful of violations were found by investigators - from brake problems to poor maintenance of driver logbooks - and that the driver was believed to have been going too fast and may have been inattentive or fallen asleep at the wheel.

However, no formal citations have been issued and no specific cause for the crash was identified. Instead, the results of the probe will be sent to the Pinal County Attorney's Office for review.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... bus-crash/

Records released in bus crash that killed 6 south of Phoenix

by JJ Hensley and Glen Creno -
Apr. 20, 2010 07:58 PM
The Arizona Republic .

At least two motorists told police that the bus involved in a deadly crash south of Phoenix last month was being driven so erratically that they called 911 shortly before it tumbled off the freeway and overturned.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety released more than 130 pages of investigative records about the crash Tuesday. The DPS records show a handful of violations were found by investigators - items from brake problems to poor maintenance of driver logbooks - and that the driver was believed to have been going too fast and may have been inattentive or fallen asleep at the wheel.

However, no formal citations have been issued and no specific cause for the crash was identified. Instead, the results of the probe will be sent to the Pinal County Attorney's Office for review.

The crash happened early March 5 when the bus, traveling from central Mexico to Los Angeles on Interstate 10, smashed into a pickup truck ahead of it. The bus veered into the median of the interstate, then back across several lanes, rolling in a ditch to the right of the road. Six of 22 people aboard died.

The DPS documents indicate that the bus' Mexican driver, Alfonso Alvarado, changed his story with investigators during several interviews, beginning at the scene of the crash 30 miles south of Ahwatukee and through his hospital stay. A drug expert concluded that he was not impaired when the crash happened.

Passengers on the bus could not agree whether or not Alvarado fell asleep at the wheel, though one said he thought Alvarado had. Alvarado blamed the pickup truck he rammed from behind for suddenly slowing. The pickup driver, Manuel Segura, 37, also of Mexico, said he did not do anything unusual and that the bus just hit his vehicle from behind before veering and rolling.

Other drivers on I-10 that morning, and passengers on the bus, said Alvarado was going too fast.

Some said he was tailgating a tractor-trailer for several miles down the highway, with the semi's driver at one point tapping the truck's brakes in what seemed to be an attempt to get the bus to back off.

"The accident this morning with the bus was related to speed," said Walter Catton, a Pinal County resident who told investigators he travels the route every day.

Another witness, Wayne Shaw of Casa Grande, told officers he was on his way to Phoenix when the bus blew past him, nearly running him off the road. The bus was weaving erratically through traffic for several miles, he told investigators, prompting Shaw to try to call 911 just before the accident occurred.

The bus driver initially told investigators through an interpreter that his steering locked before the crash. Later, however, after investigators had spoken to the driver of the pickup the bus rear-ended, Alvarado confirmed that he hit the truck.

Officer Dan Slade noted in his report that Alvarado and the bus should have been taken out of service because Alvarado was incapable of reading or speaking English as required by Arizona law and did not have the prior seven days of his driver's log up to date, and the bus was not roadworthy "due to brakes being contaminated (by oil) and out of adjustment."

Documents say Cayetano Martinez, owner of Tierra Santa, the Los Angeles-area company that owns the bus, tried to take out insurance on the bus after the crash.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pina ... crash.html