Thread: LA. 2 Killed, 41 Injured in Crash Involving Unlicensed Illegal Alien Bus Driver

Illegal immigrant driver said brakes failed before fatal bus crash

David Hammer tracks down how an illegal immigrant was allowed to drive a bus involved in a fatal wreck Sunday.

David Hammer, Ramon Antonio Vargas / The New Orleans Advocate and Jim Mustian / The New Orleans Advocate , WWL
10:33 PM. CDT August 30, 2016




NEW ORLEANS -- The driver of the party bus that crashed early Sunday in St. John the Baptist Parish blamed faulty brakes for the fatal collision, according to three people who have spoken to surviving witnesses.

Meanwhile, several elected officials in Louisiana and beyond demanded answers Tuesday regarding the immigration status of the bus driver, Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, an undocumented Honduran national who has been cited a half-dozen times for driving without a license and was arrested in 2011 on domestic abuse battery charges that were later dropped.

State Police have not yet pinpointed the cause of the multi-vehicle crash, which claimed the lives of two people, including a St. John the Baptist Parish district fire chief, and wounded more than 30 others.

Authorities confirmed, however, that they are investigating whether mechanical problems caused the bus to careen into a fire engine that had been blocking traffic at the scene of an earlier wreck on Interstate 10.

"Anything's a possibility when it comes to the crash investigation," said Trooper Melissa Matey, a State Police spokeswoman. "We know speed is a factor. As to whether the brakes failed or did not fail, that's still under investigation."

• 
  Cristian Silva, a Harvey attorney who represents three of the laborers wounded aboard the bus, said that one of his clients, a woman who remained at the scene for more than an hour, heard Amaya blame the crash on malfunctioning brakes.

"The driver came out (of the bus) and said the brakes did not function," Silva said. "In her opinion, he had the opportunity to flee, and he didn't," instead remaining at the scene and helping the wounded.

Two other sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said passengers on the bus had given them similar accounts of the brakes failing. One said that Amaya began swerving in an attempt to avoid striking two other vehicles before barreling into the fire engine.

Amaya remained jailed Tuesday on counts of negligent homicide, negligent injuring, reckless operation and driving without a license. Federal authorities already have issued an immigration detainer, a strong indication that he will face deportation proceedings in addition to the criminal charges.

As authorities continued to reconstruct Sunday's crash, Amaya's undocumented status – and his repeated encounters with law enforcement, dating to 2011 – fueled demands among conservatives for more stringent immigration enforcement. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry on Tuesday renewed his call for the end of so-called "sanctuary city" policies in the New Orleans area, which he said "encourage the further migration of illegals into communities and cost a grave toll in money and safety."

But while New Orleans police explicitly prohibit officers from investigating immigration status in most cases, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office leaves the question up to deputies' discretion, a spokesman said. And it's in Jefferson Parish where Amaya, who lived in Metairie, appears to have run afoul of the law.

Amaya, 37, has pleaded guilty at least four times, in Jefferson Parish alone, to driving without a license and avoided jail time – let alone deportation – by paying nominal fines and court costs. He also had been booked on allegations that he punched his live-in girlfriend and struck that woman's daughter with a cellphone – charges that later were dismissed.

Federal immigration officials focus primarily on deporting undocumented immigrants accused of violent crimes and other felonies. The State Police’s Matey said troopers are not trained to determine if people are in the country illegally and it depends on the circumstances of the crime whether they call federal immigration officials.

"The question is, why isn’t being in this country illegally a deportable offense?"

Attorney General Jeff Landry asked.

“There's no communication between the state and the feds. I was on the phone with the federal government the very next day, talking to Immigration and Customs, trying to find out why this particular person was not deported.”

Amaya's undocumented status also has drawn the ire of three Republican U.S. senators, who wrote a letter Tuesday to Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, posing a host of questions about the pending criminal investigation and demanding a long list of documents outlining any earlier encounters immigration officials had with Amaya. In the letter, U.S. Sens. David Vitter and Bill Cassidy, R-La., and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also asked whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to determine the immigration status of the two dozen laborers aboard the party bus Amaya was driving.

"Sadly this is yet another story in a long line of stories where innocent American citizens have been killed by an illegal alien who has complete disregard for the laws of this nation," the senators wrote.

Vitter, in a separate statement, said the crash "absolutely could have been prevented, and it's important for Secretary Johnson to cooperate in investigating the illegal alien who took two innocent American lives on Sunday, including any prior criminal activity."

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a call seeking comment late Tuesday. Several sources with knowledge of the investigation, however, said immigration officials have been in contact with at least some of the wounded laborers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, meanwhile, has assumed the lead in the investigation into Kristina's Transportation LLC, the company that provided the party bus.

Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for that agency, said investigators were working to determine whether Kristina's Transportation had been shuttling passengers across state lines and, if so, whether they had complied with federal regulations.

New details also emerged about the laborers aboard the bus and the flood-relief work they intended to perform Sunday in the aftermath of the Baton Rouge floods – work involving a contractor known as Wallace, Rush, Schmidt Inc. According to a man who said he has worked for WRS, company recruiters posted a message on social media soliciting people interested in disaster clean-up jobs.

The jobs had no benefits but paid $11 an hour, said the worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by the company to speak with the media.

Beginning about a week before the crash, dozens of workers had been shuttled from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge in buses owned by Kristina's Transportation, which has the trade name "AM Party Bus." Amaya had driven buses along that route on at least five occasions before Sunday, the worker said, adding that Kristina's charged about $300 per trip.

The owner of Kristina's Transportation, Christian Lombardo, had insisted that Amaya was properly licensed and even referred to the driver as "my guy Denis," the worker added. Another source, however,said Amaya had worked for years on construction sites for one of WRS' partners and a company recruiter.

WRS’s attorney Jesse Wimberly said the company has no record of ever employing Amaya.

In a text message to WWL-TV, Kristina’s Transportation said, “No comment can be made at this time.”

Once the bus dropped a load of prospective workers in Baton Rouge, they would fill out applications and turn them in to WRS representatives, who would verify that the laborers had a required Social Security number and photo identification. If they had the proper documents, they would be hired; if they lacked them, they would be sent back to the New Orleans area, the WRS worker said.

On the morning of the crash, enough workers to fill three Kristina's buses were picked up outside of the Clearview Mall in Metairie, the WRS worker said. State authorities said Kristina's Transportation had the proper Public Service Commission permits to transport passengers across Louisiana parishes, but the company did not have separate papers necessary to pick them up in Jefferson Parish, parish officials have said.

Though the party bus being driven by Amaya never made it to Baton Rouge, two yellow school buses that picked up prospective laborers at the mall on Sunday did, the worker said.

The worker said he was angry with Kristina's Transportation not only because the crash left two people dead, but because it thrust laborers interested in doing vital rebuilding work into the center of a heated immigration debate that has raged throughout the presidential election cycle.

"These poor people were looking for bread to bring to the table," the worker said. "They just wanted to rebuild homes and feel that they were doing something for their community."

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/ille...rash/311482385

They just wanted to rebuild homes and feel that they were doing something for their community."

No they wanted the $11 hr that they knew just required an obviously fraudulent SS# & any picture id. Notice the legislator's part ownership in the construction company that employs illegals ongoing is no longer mentioned in articles.

ILLEGAL Alien Who Caused Fatal Bus Crash in LA Was Hired By Politicians



SOOPERMEXICAN Featured Contributor




By now you may have heard about the gruesome bus accident killed two and injured dozens in Louisiana, on the way to help clean up the aftermath of Louisiana’s terrible flooding.

But now we know the accident happened when an illegal alien driving a bus full of other illegals plowed into an accident scene on their way to Baton Rouge. The driver had a history of citations for driving without a license, but that isn’t taken into account with deportations.

And even worse, the company that was used – and hires illegals instead of Americans – is owned by Louisiana politicians.

From WWITV:

A company owned by a St. Tammany Parish constable and an Arkansas state representative hired the bus full of illegal workers that caused a fatal accident on Interstate 10 Sunday, and one of the workers with a particularly bad driving record was at the wheel.

WRS, an Arkansas company registered to three men — including Eddie Schmidt, the elected Ward 4 constable for St. Tammany Parish, and David Wallace, a state legislator from Leachville, Ark. – had a man named Edgar round up potential workers. Wallace told The New Orleans Advocate that WRS hired a bus to take the work crew to a commercial job site in the Baton Rouge area.

This is really an outrage. It’s the liberal immigration policies of Obama that allow illegal aliens to stay here and find work, but it’s even more insane that two local politicians would hire illegals and end up causing a fatal accident. How is this not front page news all across the country?

A lawyer for the company is now trying to throw the bus company under the bus (pun intended) by saying that they would have rejected all 24 illegal aliens. Really? Are we supposed to believe that people waste money like that for no reason whatsoever?

Here’s more about the accident from the advocate:

A grisly crash killed two people, including a fire chief, and injured dozens of others Sunday in St. John the Baptist Parish when a party bus shuttling workers to Baton Rouge for post-flood rebuilding plowed into a fire engine that had stopped at the scene of an earlier wreck on Interstate 10.

The driver of the bus, Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, a Honduran national, was booked on two counts of negligent homicide, negligent injuring, reckless operation and driving without a license.

Amaya, 37, told the authorities he did not have permission to be living in the country, said Trooper Melissa Matey, a State Police spokeswoman.

The crash claimed the lives of Spencer Chauvin, 36, of Gramercy, a district chief with the St. John Fire Services, and 21-year-old Jermaine Starr, of Moss Point, Mississippi, who had been in another vehicle struck by the bus.

These are two American citizens whose lives were snuffed out by an illegal alien because a company wanted to profit from cheap labor. This is unbelievable.

Here’s more about the deaths:

Moss Point man killed in Louisiana bus crash
WLOX - Biloxi, MS


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How is it possible that people say there is no problem with illegal immigration when Americans are DYING from accidents caused by shameless politicians?!

What do you think? Should these politicians face some stiff consequences for the deaths they allegedly caused? Let us know in the comments section below!

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/o...#ixzz4J2GXy7Dz

Police Report 3rd Death From Louisiana Bus Crash

• By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS — Sep 1, 2016, 8:00 PM ET


A Mississippi man died Thursday from injuries suffered when a bus carrying people seeking flood recovery work in south Louisiana hit a fire truck and other vehicles on an elevated highway west of New Orleans.

State police said Vontarous Kelly, 33, of Moss Point, was the third person to die as a result of Sunday's accident on Interstate 10.

Kelly was a passenger in a car driven by Jermaine Starr of Moss Point, who died after the crash. Also killed was a St. John the Baptist Parish fire chief, Spencer Chauvin.

More than 30 others were injured.

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday ordered that U.S. and state flags over the state Capitol be flown at half-staff until sunset on Friday to honor Chauvin, whose funeral was Thursday.

"By all accounts, District Chief Chauvin was a courageous hero who never missed an opportunity to save a life or have the back of one of his fellow first responders," said Edwards.

State police are investigating the crash. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is taking the lead in investigating the owners of the bus, AM Party Bus and Kristina's Transportation LLC.

Bond is set at $1.1 million for the man accused of driving the bus, Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, a Honduran immigrant. State police say he entered the country illegally and did not have a driver's license.

The fire truck that was hit by the bus was stopped on the highway to block traffic while state police investigated an earlier wreck.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/p...crash-41809241

Bus driver in fatal I-10 crash indicted in St. John Parish

denis-yasmir-amaya-rodriguezjpg-991fa435084dcd6f.jpg

Denis Yasmir Amaya-Rodriguez, 37, was indicted on Oct. 10 on three counts of negligent homicide -- one for each of the three people when a bus Amaya-Rodriguez was driving crashed on I-10 in LaPlace in August. (Louisiana State Police)

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Beau Evans, NOLA.com | The Times-PicayuneBy Beau Evans, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Email the author
on October 19, 2016 at 8:30 AM, updated October 19, 2016 at 8:38 AM


The unlicensed bus driver involved in a fatal Interstate 10 crash in August has been indicted on three counts of negligent homicide. The crash in LaPlace killed three people, including St. John Fire District Chief Spencer Chauvin.

Denis Yasmir Amaya-Rodriguez, 37, was indicted on Oct. 10 in the 40th Judicial District on three counts of negligent homicide -- one for each of the three people killed during the crash. An arraignment date has not been set.

An undocumented Honduran man, Amaya-Rodriguez was driving without a license at the time of the crash and has a history of traffic violations. An immigration detainer has been placed on Amaya-Rodriguez by United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement, which marks him for deportation upon release from prison.

He is being held in St. John the Baptist Parish jail on bond totaling more than $1.7 million.

On Aug. 28, Amaya-Rodriguez was driving a "party bus" carrying over 30 workers headed for Baton Rouge, where they planned to be hired by a firm to restore flood-damaged buildings. According to injured passengers, Amaya-Rodriguez claimed the brakes failed before the bus plowed into several cars on I-10, killing three people and injuring dozens more.

The firm poised to hire the workers, Wallace, Rush, Schmidt, Inc., or WRS, has pegged an independent "headhunter" named Edgar Rueda as the person responsible for organizing the trip to Baton Rouge.

WSR's owners include 4th Ward St. Tammany Parish Constable Eddie Schmidt, Arkansas state House representative David Wallace, and Howard Rush, of Denver.

Federal authorities in September were investigating Kristina's Transportation LLC/AM Party Bus, the company that officials say owns the 2002 El Dorado National bus that crashed. Christian Lombardo, who is listed on secretary of state records as the company's registered agent and sole officer, declined comment in August. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is the lead agency in the investigation into Kristina's Transportation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In September, Amaya-Rodriguez told a Spanish-speaking website that Lombardo allowed him to drive even after learning Amaya-Rodriguez did not have a license. In the interview with Jambalaya News, Amaya-Rodriguez expressed misgivings to Lombardo about driving without a license, and reiterated that the brakes had failed.

"The bus, they gave it to me and they didn't check it or anything," Amaya-Rodriguez said in the interview, referring to Lombardo. "I even told him, 'I don't want to drive because I don't have a license to drive these large vehicles here.'"

The fatal crash occurred as St. John Parish firefighters and Louisiana State Police officers were working at the scene of an earlier single-car crash, which had occurred near the I-10 Belle Terre exit ramp in LaPlace at around 6:40 a.m. Just before 7:20 a.m., the bus struck a fire truck and other cars, killing Chauvin, 36, Jermaine Starr, 21, and Vontravis Kelly, 33. Over 30 passengers and two firefighters were also injured.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...-10_crash.html

No-show attorney, translation issues cause delays as driver pleads not guilty in fatal LaPlace bus crash

BY DELLA HASSELLE |
OCT 25, 2016 - 12:33 PM

An unlicensed bus driver who authorities say was in the U.S. illegally pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three counts of negligent homicide related to an Aug. 28 crash on Interstate 10 near LaPlace that killed three people and injured dozens.

The arraignment of Honduran national Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, in Edgard was delayed several hours after his attorney failed to show up and the court couldn't locate a translator.

Amaya has claimed that the accident was the result of faulty brakes and that the bus company that hired him to transport laborers to Baton Rouge for flood recovery work knew he was unlicensed.

Instead of postponing the hearing, attorney Matthew Whitworth stood in place of Amaya's attorney LaShanda Webb, who was in the middle of a trial in another parish. In the absence of an official translator, the court swore in Erwin Sosa, a St. John resident who was in court for jury duty.

The arraignment then proceeded in "a somewhat unorthodox fashion," Whitworth said in court, as Sosa, who said he was fluent in both Spanish and English, explained the charges to Amaya in front of 40th Judicial District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy and St. John the Baptist Parish Assistant District Attorney Henri Dufresne.

Marjorie Esman, the director of Louisiana's American Civil Liberties Union, said the law requires state courts to provide defendants adequate translation services. Amaya's rights were not violated if he understood the proceedings and Sosa's translation was accurate, but in the future the court should ensure an interpreter is available instead of counting on finding someone in the building who can speak Spanish, Esman said.

Wearing a dark gray and white jail jumpsuit and with chains around his waist and wrists, Amaya pleaded not guilty to the charges of negligent homicide, as well as to operating a vehicle without a license, reckless operation and 39 counts of negligent injury. Bail has been set at more than $1.7 million.

Police say the bus Amaya was driving on Aug. 28 plowed into a firetruck that was stopped on the elevated I-10 over the swamp in LaPlace to assist with an earlier accident. The firetruck then hit several other vehicles.

The wreck threw three firefighters into the water about 40 feet below, badly injuring two of them and killing Spencer Chauvin, a 36-year-old St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Services supervisor.

The pileup also killed Jermaine Starr, 21, and Vontarous Kelly, 33, who were passengers in one of the cars hit by the bus and were also headed to Baton Rouge to do flood cleanup work. About 30 other people were injured, including the passengers on the bus.

Amaya has previously been cited half a dozen times for driving without a license. In 2011, he was also arrested on domestic abuse battery charges, but those were later dropped.

After the crash, elected officials demanded an investigation into the immigration status of Amaya. Federal authorities issued an immigration detainer within a couple of days of the accident, suggesting Amaya will face deportation proceedings in addition to the criminal charges.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also began investigating Kristina's Transportation LLC, the company that provided the bus.

Officials on Tuesday said Amaya was in custody in St. John and gave no details about how or when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might proceed with his case.

The arraignment was attended by family members of Chauvin, the firefighter who died in the crash. His father and mother, Ivy and Donna Chauvin, were accompanied by his brother, Jeremy Chauvin, and his sister, Brittany Borne.

Borne, who was wearing a shirt that said "In loving memory of Spencer," said she hoped Amaya ultimately is found guilty and given the maximum sentence allowed by law.

"He was willing to do anything for anyone," Borne said of the dead firefighter. "I don't think a single person could say anything bad about him."

A status conference on the case, complete with a certified translator, is scheduled for Nov. 11.

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orlea...0da69dcc4.html

In trial for bus driver accused of causing fatal I-10 crash, jury deliberates

Updated 2:12 PM; Posted 1:29 PM


Denis Yasmir Amaya-Rodriguez, 37, faces three counts of negligent homicide stemming from a fatal I-10 bus crash in August 2016 in which he was the driver of a "party bus" headed to Baton Rouge that plowed into a firetruck and other cars, killing three people and injuring dozens more. (Photo courtesy of Louisiana State Police)
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By Littice Bacon-Blood
lbacon-blood@nola.com,
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A jury was expected to start deliberating Thursday (Jan. 11) afternoon in St. John the Baptist Parish following three days of testimony in the trial of Denis Amaya-Rodriguez, the unlicensed bus driver accused of causing a fatal crash on Interstate 10 near LaPlace that killed three people, including a firefighter responding to the scene, and injured more than 30 others.

Amaya-Rodriguez, a Honduran who authorities say was in the country illegally at the time of the Aug. 28, 2016, crash, faces three counts of negligent homicide.

Following a court break, the jury, comprised of four women and two men, were scheduled to hear closing arguments and instructions before being sent out to deliberate by 40th Judicial District Court Judge Sterling Snowdy. The jury must reach a unanimous verdict to convict.

Authorities say Amaya-Rodriguez was driving a bus to Baton Rouge with more than 30 passengers when he crashed into several cars stopped on the I-10 overpass from an earlier accident. The passengers were headed to the city to work on flood-damaged buildings.

Lawyers for Amaya-Rodriguez's court appointed attorney, Shannon Battiste, argued the brakes on the bus failed, causing the accident. His lone witness, bus passenger Vickie Fuentes of Terrytown, testified she saw the driver "fooling around" with something she assumed was the emergency brakes prior to the crash.

An investigative report from Louisiana State Police contradicts the defense claim of inoperable brakes. A witness for the prosecution testified Amaya-Rodriguez ignored the flashing lights of emergency vehicles, sped passed her on the interstate and switched lanes shortly before hitting a car that set off a chain reaction of other crashes.

Prosecutors say the driver was speeding and in a rush to get to Baton Rouge.

The state's witnesses also included the Louisiana State Trooper who examined the bus after the crash and determined the brakes were working, and one of the firefighters hit by the bus and thrown off the overpass.

Jurors also viewed a dash cam video of the accident captured by a state trooper who had responded to the earlier accident.

Fuentes' testimony, initially halting and filled with pauses as she struggled to formulate answers to Battiste's questions, was later aided by a Spanish-language interpreter.

Fuentes testified she was sitting in the back of the bus in an elevated seat and was able to see the driver and the roadway.

She told jurors she recalled seeing the accident ahead, seeing the driver messing with some equipment and then hearing the driver shout.

"'Hold on! Accidente.' That means crash," Fuentes testified.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...s_amaya_r.html

Move to new section for Americans Killed By Illegals

Millions more that Joe Biden let in are buying cars, and most likely using OUR tax dollars they are awarded!

There will be a bloodbath on our roads, and plenty more deaths on this corrupt administration's hands.

NO drivers' license! No vehicles! No path to stay here.

Deport every one of them with their UACs.