AP: Texas

09/29/2005

By MATT CURRY  / Associated Press

The firm that operated the bus in which 23 nursing home patients were killed in a fiery accident was reported three years ago for transporting elderly passengers in a vehicle that was "not up to standard road worthy conditions in any state including Texas."

The 2002 complaint against Global Tours and Charters, now Global Limo Inc., led to a state investigation that found several violations. No enforcement action was taken, according to 58 pages of records released Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Two other complaints against the company were also filed with state officials that year.

No one answered the phone at the bus company's offices Thursday morning. Mark Cooper, a San Antonio attorney for Global, did not immediately return phone calls.

A group of nursing home residents was being moved Friday from the Texas coast because of Hurricane Rita's approach when their Global bus caught fire near Dallas. Investigators have said the fire could have been caused by mechanical problems, possibly with the brakes. It may have been fueled by patients' oxygen tanks.

In 2002, a man named Donald Spotts of Weslaco wrote the Texas attorney general and other state officials that there was a "very strong odor of diesel fumes" during a 160-mile trip from Weslaco to Corpus Christi on one of the company's buses. The bus carried 48 seniors, Spotts wrote.

"The diesel smell was very unhealthy, pungent, overpouring and many of the passengers were caughing and wheezing both on the journey up and back," he said.

A separate complaint, filed in 2002 by a man named Ross Gunning, claims one of Global's buses was "swaying all over the road."

Another complainant identified as Sara Martinez wrote in 2002 that "there is no particular bus, it is most of the buses in this company. This company's buses have oil and air leaks. They only have two buses that are in good condition."

A 2002 state inspection conducted in response to the complaints found several violations, including failure to implement an alcohol or controlled substances testing program, failure to retain inspection of inspection and maintenance records for a set period of time and failure to retain evidence of a brake inspector's qualifications.

The company, operated by James H. Maples, was required to make changes as part of an "educational contact" by state investigators.

"Mr. Maples was strongly adviced that Global Tours must comply immediately with all requirements of the regulations especially since their business is transporting passengers," according to an April 2002 intra-agency memo.

Maples informed the Texas Department of Transportation in May 2002 that Global had taken several steps since being visited by a TxDoT inspector, including the hiring of a compliance supervisor to oversee bus operations.

The 37 elderly patients from Brighton Gardens nursing home had boarded the bus Thursday afternoon and had been plodding inland for hours in heavy traffic. A threatened direct hit from Hurricane Rita on their low-lying town in Bellaire, near Houston, never happened. Rita ultimately hit land farther north, sparing the Houston area heavy damage.

Witnesses have described smoke filling the cabin after it pulled over early Friday on Interstate 45 south of Dallas. Soon, the bus was in flames, and a series of explosions — probably medical oxygen canisters igniting — fueled the flames and trapped most of the occupants inside.

The Mexican driver of the bus, Juan Robles Gutierrez, 37, was arrested Tuesday evening on immigration charges, the Houston Chronicle reported in Thursday editions. He was being held in McAllen.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the bus accident.

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On the Net:

Texas Department of Public Safety: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us