Angel Reyes Blog : Angel Reyes : Texas Litigation Lawyer and Attorney : Dangerous Drugs : Wrongful Death : Business Litigation

Leha Nguyen, a survivor of the crash, said she had just dozed off when she was abruptly awakened by a terrible noise, followed by screaming. "I think I'm the luckiest one out of most people," said Nguyen, 45.

Since initial news of the crash, startling information has come to light. The vehicle's right front tire which blew out had been re-treaded in violation of safety standards.  The tread separated from the tire and resulted in "delamination."  According to Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, "If there is a loss of pressure or the tire becomes delaminated, it's much more difficult to control the vehicle. It is legal to retread such tires but they may not be used on the wheels that steer a bus."

Additionally, the 52-year-old bus driver, Barrett Wayne Broussard, had an expired medical certification.  And state records revealed that in 2001, Broussard was convicted of a DUI, sentenced to ten days in prison and fined $225.  He also has three other arrests under his belt, and in 1998, was sentenced to two years in prison for a probation violation.  What's even more amazing is that the bus operator, Iguala BusMex Inc. of Houston, had applied in June for a federal license to operate as a charter but was still awaiting approval. The company filed incorporation papers under the same owner's name and address as Angel Tours, Inc., which was forced to take its vehicles out of interstate service on June 23rd of this year due to an unsatisfactory review that cited three major problems:  using a driver before receiving a pre-employment result, failing to require a driver to prepare a vehicle inspection report and using a driver who wasn't medically re-examined every two years.  Neither Angel Tours, Inc. nor Iguala BusMex Inc. is authorized to operate as a carrier in interstate commerce.

In tragedies such as these, it is imperative that victims and their families obtain the right legal representation.  Good attorneys will do everything within their power to ensure that wrongdoers are held accountable for their actions, and obtain fair compensation for the injured parties. My firm, Heygood, Orr, Reyes, Pearson & Bartolomei has helped countless victims of life-altering personal injuries such as this one.  For more information, visit our website at ReyesLaw.com, or email Angel@Reyeslaw.com.

Please read the following two articles about Friday's devastating Sherman bus crash:

 

911 callers told of carnage at Texas bus wreck
By ANDRE COE, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, August 9, 2008

SHERMAN, Texas - Witnesses who called 911 after a chartered bus crash that killed at least 16 people described a chaotic scene, telling emergency personnel of bloody passengers crushed beneath the smoking wreckage, according to calls released Saturday by police.

The unlicensed bus carrying 55 members of a Vietnamese Catholic group from Houston to Carthage, Mo., for an annual religious festival smashed into a guardrail and skidded off a highway early Friday near the Texas-Oklahoma state line. Twelve people died at the scene and four more died at hospitals.

One emergency call began with a female crash victim speaking in accented English over the screams and moans of other passengers. After struggling to answer the 911 operator's questions, she handed the phone to a man, who apparently arrived at the scene immediately after the crash.

"We've got people crushed underneath the bus," the man said. "The bus is smoking. It might catch fire."

A female caller told a 911 operator that there were passengers "just everywhere out here laid out on the ground. They are bloody." Another caller said: "There's people screaming for help."

Federal investigators were to try to pinpoint what caused the bus to smash into a guardrail and skid off a highway north of Dallas, crushing one side of the vehicle and injuring dozens.

The vehicle's right front tire, which blew out, had been retreaded in violation of safety standards, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. The tread had separated from the tire itself in a process called delamination.

"If there is a loss of pressure or the tire becomes delaminated, it's much more difficult to control the vehicle," she said.

It is legal to retread such tires but they may not be used on the wheels that steer a bus, Hersman said.

The vehicle was carrying 55 people from Houston to Carthage, Mo., for an annual festival honoring the Virgin Mary. Most of the passengers were from the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and two other mostly Vietnamese congregations in Houston.

The Marian Days pilgrimage, which started in the late 1970s, attracts thousands of Catholics of Vietnamese descent and includes a large outdoor Mass each day, entertainment and camping at night.

By midday Saturday, the damaged guardrail had been replaced. Several bouquets of carnations, tulips and roses had been left on the embankment amid the burned grass and shards of broken glass.

The 52-year-old driver, Barrett Wayne Broussard, had a commercial license but his medical certification had expired, Hersman said. The driver was reported in stable condition at a hospital.

According to online records from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Broussard was convicted in 2001 of driving while intoxicated in Houston and sentenced to 10 days in prison and was fined $225. He has also been arrested at least three other times and was sentenced to two years in prison in 1998 for violating probation.

The bus operator, Iguala BusMex Inc. of Houston, had applied in June for a federal license to operate as a charter but was still awaiting approval, according to online records.

The company recently filed incorporation papers, listing the same owner and address as Angel Tours Inc., which was forced by federal regulators to take its vehicles out of interstate service June 23 after an unsatisfactory review, records show.

The review cited the company for problems in three areas: using a driver before receiving a pre-employment result, failing to require a driver to prepare a vehicle inspection report and using a driver who wasn't medically re-examined every two years.

Neither company is authorized to operate as a carrier in interstate commerce, said John H. Hill, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

A man at Angel Tours in Houston declined to comment Friday. The company's voicemail system was full Saturday and not accepting new messages. No one answered Saturday at a listing for the company's attorney.

"We're in the middle of a very intense investigation," attorney Keena Greyling told the Houston Chronicle, the newspaper reported Saturday on its Web site. "Because of that, we really can't discuss anything further."

It was the nation's deadliest bus crash since 2004, when 15 people were killed in a wreck in Arkansas on their way to Mississippi's casinos. In 2005, 23 people were killed near Dallas when a bus carrying nursing home residents away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

About 900 people gathered Friday night at Vietnamese Martyrs Church for a Mass attended by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo.

"We are here with them to pray for those who are lost and for God's consolation in this time of grief and loss," DiNardo said. "The Vietnamese Catholic culture is very strong. A lot of those who have come here have been through a great deal just to get to this country. They've always preserved their Catholic faith. This is a trial. This is a challenge."

DiNardo said the losses, which include church leaders, are "incomprehensible."

One of the victims was identified as Hoangy Thi Dung, 71, of Houston, who was pronounced dead by a Grayson County justice of the peace. Sherman Police Lt. Bob Fair declined to release the names of the dead because some family members have not been notified.

Organizers of the festival in Missouri said the victims would be remembered at Mass and at various conferences during the gathering.




Fatal Sherman bus crash devastates tight-knit community
10:03 AM CDT on Saturday, August 9, 2008
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

Phone calls at 2 a.m. rarely bring good news, and this one was no different.

The voice on the line told the Rev. Joseph Vu that a charter bus carrying dozens of his parishioners from Houston to Carthage, Mo., for a three-day religious festival had rolled off a bridge and fallen 12 feet down an embankment.

"It's very sad, but I know they are devout Catholics," Father Vu said. "They are going to worship God. I know that they are in God's hands.' "

The crash early Friday in Sherman took 15 lives and injured dozens.

Father Vu's parishioners and that of Our Lady of Lavang Parish were part of a three-bus caravan that left Thursday night headed to the Marian Days festival.

From Houston to Dallas and far beyond, the tragedy dealt a body blow to the Vietnamese community, particularly the tight-knit Catholic Vietnamese.

Vigils were held across the state. More than 50 people attended Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Vietnamese Church in Carrollton on Friday night to pray for victims, their friends and family.

Father Joseph Son-Van Nguyen acknowledged the desire by the faithful to question why bad things like this happen.

"Faith is not easy, but we have to sacrifice ourselves – sometimes our lives," he told parishioners.

He assured them that nothing is out of God's hands.

"We feel sorrow. We feel empty. We feel somehow God wasn't present there. But God, I think, will open the door to welcome them – all of them.

"Pray for them."

All day, the story dominated the airwaves of radio and TV stations serving the Vietnamese community.

"It's very sad news," said Kien Nguyen, president of Little Saigon radio in Houston. "This is a big deal for us. In the Christian community, they are very quiet and they support one another."

Vien Van, account manager with Weekly Classified Ads, which serves the Vietnamese community in the Houston area, said he sometimes attends the Martyrs church.

"It's going to hit the community as a whole, not just the church, because we are all united," Mr. Van said.

Dallas-area ministers rushed to the accident scene and to area hospitals.

Through an interpreter, the Rev. Paul Nguyen of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Garland described a somber scene at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

"People are very confused," he said. "Now, they're waiting for their families to arrive."

At Father Vu's church, established in 1986, parishioners grieved and mourned during a morning Mass.

Mary Nguyen, a member of the parish for more than a decade, went to the church after learning that a close friend had died. She'd planned to meet her friend Thursday night, but the visit was canceled so her friend could go on the trip. She began sobbing as she described a dream Thursday night that kept waking her up, in which she was on a trip with the friend then opened a suitcase and saw dead bodies.

"I feel so sorry because she's dead. ... She was just a very good person," she said. "The church is like one big family here. We're very close. We stick together."

Theresa Le, with her red-rimmed eyes, sought solace with the congregation that was like family to her. She prayed for friends who were on the bus, as well as her best friend, Vo Ta, who died in the crash.

"She was a very nice person," said Ms. Le, a postal employee. "Before she left on the trip, she came to my house and brought me cupcakes."

Family members waited anxiously at hospitals from here to Oklahoma.

Tien Nguyen of Houston drove to Sherman after learning from family that five relatives were on the bus. "Everybody knows everybody," he said.

He went to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center after learning that the hospital had received the largest number of accident patients. He found three family members at Wilson but was unable to find the names of two other relatives on any hospital patient lists.

By late Friday afternoon, Father Vu had made his way to a hospital in Durant, Okla., where he had found the chairman of his parish council. The man had lost his wife. His sister was severely injured.

"He was the one to see 11 of them dead there at the site," said Father Vu, adding that he knew for sure that at least four of his church members had died.

He said he had prayed with his parishioners, but many of them are too injured to talk. "They have broken arms, necks broken," Father Vu said.

"They trust in God. What we can do is just pray."

The Houston Chronicle and staff writers Blanca Cantu, Rachel Slade and Ian Hamilton contributed to this report.

HOW TO HELP
There are a few ways those in the North Texas area can help the victims of Friday's bus crash:

•The Salvation Army is asking anyone who would like to donate money or any other items to call the Dallas office at 214-637-8100 or the Sherman office at 903-868-9602.

•The Red Cross is expecting a run on area blood supplies. Anyone who would like to donate blood should call 1-800-RED-CROSS to schedule an appointment. Red Cross officials said relatives and friends should call the same number to get information about passengers on the bus.