Feds Shut Down Bus Company After Fatal Arizona Accident

LOS ANGELES (March 8) -- Federal officials have shut down a bus company in the wake of a crash March 5 in Arizona that killed six passengers, accusing the carrier of operating illegally.

More than a dozen other people, including the 66-year-old bus driver, were injured when the bus, traveling from Zacatecas, Mexico, to Phoenix and then Los Angeles, collided with a pickup truck and rolled over.

Local authorities described an 11-year-old boy as a "hero" for serving as a translator from his stretcher as English-speaking medical personnel attended to Spanish-speaking crash victims.

Arizona Department of Public Safety police officers survey the damage of a tour bus crash in Sacaton, Ariz., on March 5, 2010

Ross D. Franklin, AP

Police officers survey damage to a tour bus that crashed Friday in Sacaton, Ariz. Six passengers were killed in the crash, and more than a dozen other people were injured.

Federal officials said the bus operator, Tierra Santa Inc. of Los Angeles, is owned by Cayetano Martinez, who filed an application in April 2009 for a permit to carry interstate passengers. Martinez had been warned at the time that he was "not authorized to engage in the interstate transportation of passengers by commercial motor vehicle during the application review," according to a federal Department of Transportation release.

The application was rejected in December because Martinez and Tierra Santa had "failed to provide information and documentation demonstrating they satisfy the requirements for registration and are able and willing to comply with federal statute and regulations."

Federal officials said Martinez's companies had been shut down by federal regulators before, only to "reincarnate himself as a new carrier."

"Martinez has shown a persistency and determination to continue operating under new entities and business," the government said.

Federal officials descended on Tierra Santa's offices in Van Nuys over the weekend, officials said, and also appealed to a federal judge to issue an order shutting the company down. That was granted Saturday afternoon. Martinez had already voluntarily suspended operations Friday night, transportation officials said.

The crash occurred about 5:30 a.m. MST a half-hour south of Phoenix, when the bus reportedly rear-ended a pickup truck while both were traveling westbound on Interstate 10. The bus swerved wildly, then rolled over, crushing the roof, blowing out the windows and ejecting several passengers before coming to a rest on its side.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Local officials were working today to finish identifying the dead, several of whom were from Mexico.

"It is absolutely essential that unsafe carriers like this one be taken off the road," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a prepared statement. "We will not rest until this accident has been fully investigated."