Thread: Accidents involving buses that travel from U.S. to Mexico

Accidents involving buses that travel from U.S. to Mexico

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Associated Press - May 3, 2008 4:15 AM ET

Here's a look at accidents since 2002 in the United States and Mexico involving bus companies that shuttle passengers between both countries.

Jan. 2, 2008: One person was killed and dozens of other passengers were injured, including a woman whose right arm was amputated, when a bus traveling from Monterrey, Mexico to Houston veered off U.S. 59 near Victoria and flipped on its side. Authorities said the driver, Roberto Garcia Cruz, fell asleep and was driving with the wrong kind of commercial license, both misdemeanors. Lawsuits were filed against the three Houston-based companies identified as either owning or operating the bus - Capricorn Bus Lines Inc., International Charter Services Inc. and Transportes Chavez Inc.

Nov. 25, 2007: Four people were killed after a bus traveling near Earle, Ark. crossed the median and hit a pick-up truck and semi-trailer. Three passengers and the pick-up truck driver died. More than 20 others were injured. Federal authorities temporarily shut down the bus company, Dallas-based Tornado Bus Co. Inc., accusing it of letting drivers exceed maximum hours of service and falsify duty status reports. The driver, Felix Badillo Tapia, was charged with four counts of felony negligent homicide after tests showed he had amphetamines in his system.

Aug. 30, 2006: Two passengers were killed after a bus traveling on a wet road near Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, hit a guardrail and overturned into a drainage ditch nearly 60 feet below. The driver was cited for high speed, abandoning the vehicle and abandoning those hurt. Two bus companies were identified as owning or operating the bus - Dallas-based Autobuses de Jalisco and Houston-based Monarca Bus Lines Inc. A U.S. federal court ruled the bus companies' insurance policy did not cover accidents in Mexico. Families of those killed in the accident and several injured passengers have sued the bus companies in state district court.

Jan. 18, 2006: A Salvadoran man was killed after the commercial van he was riding in hit a patch of black ice near Green River, Utah, lost control and flipped over, ejecting him. A lawsuit filed by his family accuses the drivers of going too fast and violating federal rules limiting the amount of time they could drive in a 24-hour period. The van was owned by Houston-based Transportes Los Plebes.

Oct. 7, 2005: A bus owned and operated by Autobuses Lucano Inc. and Transportes Lucano Inc., two Houston-based companies, was involved in an accident in Mexico, according to court records. Two passengers injured in the accident sued.

Aug. 1, 2005: A commercial van owned by Houston-based Transportes Diamante was involved in a single vehicle accident in Montgomery, Ala. The driver lost control of the van, which traveled over several lanes of traffic before overturning, injuring passengers according to court records.

Oct. 29, 2004: One person was killed and several others were severely injured after a van owned by Houston-based Transportes Tania was involved in a crash in Cherry Hill, N.J. Liability for the accident was placed on the driver. The accident occurred more than 1,000 miles outside the coverage area stipulated in the company's insurance policy. In 2006, a Harris County state district judge awarded five people who sued the bus company nearly $3.4 million.

Aug. 5, 2004: At least seven passengers were injured after a bus owned by Houston-based Transportes El Mexicano/El Mexicano Bus Line collided with the center median and overturned in Monterrey, Mexico. A lawsuit filed in Houston by injured passengers accused the bus driver of falling asleep and not being properly licensed.

May 5, 2004: Four people were killed and fifteen others were injured after a bus owned by Dallas-area based Autobuses Tierra Caliente was involved in an accident along a highway near San Luis Potosi, Mexico. A federal judge in Dallas in January ruled the company's insurance policy did not provide coverage for the accident because it occurred in Mexico.

April 7, 2004: Two people were killed and six others (all part of the same family) were injured after the van they were in was hit in Monterrey, Mexico by a bus owned by Houston-based Garcia Tours. A Harris County judge awarded the family $1.2 million. The judge concluded that the driver failed to maintain a safe distance, left the scene of the accident and failed to help those injured. The judge also cited the bus company owner for being negligent in her hiring, supervising and training of the driver. But a federal appeals court in 2007 ruled the bus company's insurance company did not have to pay the judgment because the policy did not cover accidents in Mexico.

Oct. 18, 2003: A man riding his bicycle along a highway near Monterrey, Mexico was killed when a bus owned by Houston-based Autobuses Adame Inc. crashed into him. The man's family sued the bus company and in Houston district court, accusing the bus driver of reckless driving. The case was settled out of court.

Sept. 20, 2002: Several passengers were injured after a bus operated by Dallas-based Autobuses Lucano Inc. and Houston-based Tres Amigos Tours went off the road and hit a tree in Jasper County, Miss., because the driver and replacement driver tried to switch seats while the bus was moving at 70 mph. A Mississippi jury awarded 1 of the injured passengers $5 million. The award was overturned on appeal and the case is set for retrial.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Mexican bus lines being watched after accidents, indictments

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Associated Press - May 3, 2008 4:15 AM ET

HOUSTON (AP) - Juan Martinez says he's seen drivers doze off from fatigue while at the wheel of the bus he takes from Houston to his hometown in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

But Martinez and the thousands of riders, mostly Mexican immigrants, looking for a cheap way to get home aren't deterred by recent crashes. Nor are they put off by recent drug smuggling indictments involving several of these bus companies.

Martinez says there's just no other way for many Mexican immigrants to get to their hometowns.

1 of the allures of these companies is their low fares. Martinez's one-way ticket on Autobuses Lucano costs $70. By comparison, a ticket on a well-known carrier like Greyhound from Houston to Montgomery, Alabama, roughly the same distance as Martinez's trip to San Luis Potosi, costs $128.

Unlike Greyhound, which doesn't go south of the border, these smaller bus companies travel from U.S. cities to Mexico. The companies have small fleets and their terminals are mostly located in Hispanic neighborhoods. While the ticket prices are low, the bus trips can be long. Many of the buses offer such amenities as movies onboard.

Attorneys for passengers injured in bus crashes, safety experts and court records say the industry, while convenient, has a long history of accidents and repeated safety violations, including overworked and undertrained drivers.

But federal regulators and other officials say the companies' safety records are no worse than traditional carriers.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Not surpriszing ...My husband received a tractors trailer in Kansas City brought up from Mexico. yesterday..(you know the trailers is supposed to be safety inspected before coming into US for violations)...with four bald tirers...he descride it as a hunk of old rusted dangerous junk...Once again Mexico did not pay... the Americans did...the outcome of a load in a trailer with four bad tires could have been very bad....thank God my husband is a GOOD Driver...and always does a visual inspection daily if not more...and he raised hell and took notes
Why should the buses be any different ...Mexico isa third world country....and they don't care about lives and safety unless the have too.

Unlike Greyhound, which doesn't go south of the border, these smaller bus companies travel from U.S. cities to Mexico. The companies have small fleets and their terminals are mostly located in Hispanic neighborhoods. While the ticket prices are low, the bus trips can be long. Many of the buses offer such amenities as movies onboard.
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UNless greyhound has stopped doing this, they do go into mexico.
when i worked there abotu ten eyars ago they sent their own buses into Nuevo Laredo, Tiajuana and Matamoros

Mexican bus lines being watched after accidents, indictments

Associated Press - May 3, 2008 4:15 AM ET

HOUSTON (AP) - Juan Martinez says he's seen drivers doze off from fatigue while at the wheel of the bus he takes from Houston to his hometown in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

But Martinez and the thousands of riders, mostly Mexican immigrants, looking for a cheap way to get home aren't deterred by recent crashes. Nor are they put off by recent drug smuggling indictments involving several of these bus companies.

Martinez says there's just no other way for many Mexican immigrants to get to their hometowns.

1 of the allures of these companies is their low fares. Martinez's one-way ticket on Autobuses Lucano costs $70. By comparison, a ticket on a well-known carrier like Greyhound from Houston to Montgomery, Alabama, roughly the same distance as Martinez's trip to San Luis Potosi, costs $128.

Unlike Greyhound, which doesn't go south of the border, these smaller bus companies travel from U.S. cities to Mexico. The companies have small fleets and their terminals are mostly located in Hispanic neighborhoods. While the ticket prices are low, the bus trips can be long. Many of the buses offer such amenities as movies onboard.

Attorneys for passengers injured in bus crashes, safety experts and court records say the industry, while convenient, has a long history of accidents and repeated safety violations, including overworked and undertrained drivers.

But federal regulators and other officials say the companies' safety records are no worse than traditional carriers.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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May. 03, 2008
Mexican bus lines under scrutiny after wrecks, indictments

By JUAN A. LOZANOAssociated Press Writer
HOUSTON -- Juan Martinez has seen drivers doze off from fatigue while he's taking a bus from Houston to his hometown in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

"This is very dangerous," Martinez said, waiting with suitcase in hand in front of Autobuses Lucano, one of the many smaller bus companies that offer service from the United States to Mexico.

But Martinez and the thousands of riders, mostly Mexican immigrants, looking for a cheap way to get home aren't deterred by recent crashes and the recent drug smuggling indictments involving several of these bus companies.

"There is just no other way for many of us to go home," he said just before boarding a bus bound for his hometown in north central Mexico.

One of the allures of these companies is their low fares. Martinez's one-way ticket cost $70. In comparison, a ticket on a well-known carrier like Greyhound from Houston to Montgomery, Ala., roughly the same distance as Martinez's trip to San Luis Potosi, costs $128.

Unlike Greyhound, which doesn't go south of the border, these smaller bus companies travel from U.S. cities to Mexico. The companies have small fleets - usually only a few buses - and their terminals are mostly located in Hispanic neighborhoods. While the ticket prices are low, the bus trips can be long. Many of the buses offer such amenities as movies onboard.

Attorneys for passengers injured in bus crashes, safety experts and court records say the industry, while convenient, has a long history of accidents in the United States and Mexico and repeated safety violations, including overworked and undertrained drivers.

But federal regulators and other officials say the companies' safety records are no worse than traditional carriers.

In the most recent crash, a bus traveling from Monterrey, Mexico, to Houston veered off a highway on Jan. 2 near Victoria.

One passenger was killed and another eventually lost an arm. The driver was cited for falling asleep and driving with the wrong kind of commercial license.

Weeks earlier, on Nov. 25, a bus owned by Dallas-based Tornado Bus Co. collided with a pickup truck and a tractor trailer near Forrest City, Ark. Three passengers and the truck's driver were killed.

Police say the driver, facing murder charges, was under the influence of amphetamines and didn't have a required relief driver with him.

Houston attorney Terry Bryant, who represents 12 of the passengers injured in January's crash, also represented passengers in a September 2002 accident in Mississippi caused when the driver and replacement driver tried to switch seats while the bus was going 70 mph.

"That's where efficiency outweighs safety. It's ridiculous," Bryant said. "It's the kind of prank you'd see in an awful TV show."

A federal jury in 2006 awarded one of the passengers injured in the crash $5 million. The judgment was overturned on appeal and the case is set for retrial.

A Houston judge in 2005 awarded a family $1.2 million after their van was hit by a bus owned by Houston-based Garcia Tours in an accident in Monterrey, Mexico, a year earlier, killing two. The judge found the driver negligent and faulted the company owner for her hiring, supervising and training practices.

But Steve Norris, a Houston attorney who represented family members, said they didn't see a penny because the bus company couldn't pay and its insurance policy did not cover accidents in Mexico.

However, the federal agency that regulates commercial truck and bus traffic says such accidents don't show an accurate picture of these types of companies, which are required to follow all safety regulations in both the United States and Mexico.

"Their overall safety performance is no worse or better than long standing traditional carriers," said Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

But Norris, who has represented passengers injured in several bus crashes, said many of these companies are "fly by night" operations that close up shop when they get in trouble. John Sloan, who represents the family of a Salvadoran man killed in a January 2006 van crash in Utah, said he had to put a newspaper ad giving notice of a lawsuit after repeated attempts to find the Houston-based company owner, including ones that led to vacant buildings, were unsuccessful. The owner, Jose Luis Macias, remains missing but the case is still going to trial in November against the insurance company.

Bryant said a bus may be owned by one company but then leased to another, making it difficult to determine who would bear responsibility for a crash.

In the bus crashes in Victoria and Mississippi, several companies were cited as either owning, leasing, or operating the vehicles.

"It's very much a tangled web," Bryant said.

Larry Warren, an attorney for Capricorn and International Charter Services, two of the bus companies connected to the bus in the Victoria crash, declined to comment about the case.

In addition to safety concerns, some bus companies are being accused of taking part in the smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants.

Last week, authorities said five companies with offices in Mexico and Texas had smuggled cocaine and marijuana in their buses into the United States since 2001.

Another company, Houston-based Pegasso Tours, forfeited one of its buses after authorities in 2005 found 136 packages of cocaine behind the driver's seat after crossing the Mexico-Texas border. Drugs had been found three other times aboard buses owned by Pegasso, according to court records.

In February, six men were sentenced for their roles in an illegal immigrant smuggling operation that hid people in the offices of a Houston bus company, National Super Express Van Tours, and used its vehicles to transport them to stash houses.

But such bus companies are not indicative of the industry as a whole, said Steve Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

"If they were representative of the entire industry, we would all be in trouble," said Campbell, whose group is made up of local and federal officials that enforce motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico. "The statistics don't bear out there is a problem in that segment of the industry or in those kinds of operations."

Capt. Steven Sullivan, with the Texas Highway Patrol's commercial vehicle enforcement section, said roadside inspections by troopers of commercial buses result in less than 10 percent of drivers being taken out of service for problems associated with proper licensing or hours spent behind the wheel.

Around 22 percent of buses are taken out of service for problems with brakes, tires or other defects.

Sullivan said these out of service rates for Texas are similar to commercial vehicle inspections done nationwide.

"Of course in a perfect world, you want voluntary compliance," he said. "You would like it to be zero. But you also have to be realistic."

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