State received complaints 3 years before fiery accident

10:08 PM CDT on Thursday, September 29, 2005

By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning News

The South Texas tour company whose bus was involved in a fiery accident that killed 23 nursing home patients last week has been accused of endangering elderly passengers before, according to documents obtained Wednesday by The Dallas Morning News.

DMN

The accident killed 23 nursing home patients.

State officials received a complaint three years ago from an elderly customer alleging hazardous conditions aboard a bus operated by Global Tours, which now operates under the name Global Limo Inc.

Donald Spotts wrote in a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation that a bus used to transport him and 47 other senior citizens from Weslaco to Corpus Christi "was not up to standard roadworthy conditions in any state including Texas."

Mr. Spotts' letter and an unrelated complaint of shoddy maintenance and record-keeping by Global Tours and Charters led the Texas Department of Public Safety to conduct an inspection in April 2002 that found several regulatory violations.

Mark Cooper, an attorney for Global, could not be reached for comment.

After its review of the company in 2002, the DPS urged Global to make changes but took no enforcement action.

The company's owner, James Maples, advised the state transportation agency the month after the review that he had implemented the requested changes. Mr. Maples said in a letter to transportation officials that he had hired a compliance supervisor to oversee his bus operations.

On Friday, a Global bus ferrying 38 elderly evacuees of Hurricane Rita from Houston to Dallas burst into flames on Interstate 45 near Wilmer. Smoke and flames were seen coming from a rear wheel that had been changed about an hour earlier.

Some passengers were rescued, but others – some in wheelchairs – perished after a series of explosions reduced the bus to a scorched shell.

The cause of the accident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is focusing on the bus's braking system.

Lawsuit filed

On Wednesday, the estate of an elderly woman who died in the accident filed a lawsuit in Hidalgo County alleging the death was caused by the negligence of the nursing home, the bus company broker that hired Global and the bus driver.

Ronald Bair, the Houston attorney who filed the suit, said his preliminary investigation makes it clear that the death of his client, Mary Gillette, was preventable.

"This is just about as much as you can get in terms of someone simply trying to cash in on the evacuation problem. That's literally what you've got," he said.

While the circumstances surrounding Mr. Spotts' complaint about Global did not result in a loss of life, they do have ominous similarities to last week's tragedy.

The DPS released Mr. Spotts' letter, along with two other complaints lodged against Global about the same time, after a request from The News.

Mr. Spotts could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The resident of a Weslaco trailer park, then 69, said in his 2002 letter that he and other elderly neighbors had contracted with Global to take them on a tour of Corpus Christi. A noxious smell permeated the bus throughout the trip, he wrote.

"The diesel smell was unhealthy, pungent, overpouring and many of the passengers were coughing both on the journey up and back," he wrote.

After the first leg of the trip, Mr. Spotts wrote, four passengers decided to take alternate transportation rather than get back on the Global bus.

Mr. Spotts suggested that neither the company nor state officials were performing their obligations under the law, and he demanded enforcement action.

"If we are in any way in harm's way because of medical concerns now and later, all responsible parties need to be reprimanded," he wrote.

Vehicle problems alleged

Mr. Spotts' letter was undated but stamped as received by the transportation department Feb. 26, 2002. An unrelated complaint about Global was made to the DPS on Feb. 20, 2002, from a woman identified only as Sara Martinez.

Her letter depicted a company in sharp deterioration. Buses leaked oil and air, she wrote, and only two vehicles were in good condition.

Some buses lacked inspection stickers, and some drivers were working without valid licenses, she said.

"In short, the whole outfit needs a good going over," Ms. Martinez wrote.

Another complaint was received by DPS on March 25, 2002. The complainant, identified as Ross Gunning, said he had seen a Global bus "swerving all over the road."

Both the bus mentioned by Mr. Gunning and a second vehicle listed by Mr. Spotts remain in Global's inventory, according to online records of the state Transportation Department. It is not known whether either bus is still being operated.

Johnny Partain, a McAllen businessman who has been battling Mr. Maples over a debt for most of the last decade, said he believes that most of Global's buses are not running or are undergoing repairs.

The bus that burst into flames south of Dallas was leased from a company in Maryland, an employee of the company told the McAllen Monitor last week.

Mr. Partain said he thinks the bus is one he has seen on Global's lot since May. He said the bus carried the name Century McMynn Leasing on the side. Witnesses at the accident scene said the bus carried the name McMynn Leasing.

Century McMynn, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, leases buses that are used by tour operators across Canada and the United States. The company could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Despite Mr. Maples' assurances to state regulators of compliance, he and eight of his drivers continued to be found in violation of traffic laws and federal motor carrier regulations by police and highway patrol officers in Texas and at least two other states.

Failed inspections

Five times between July 2003 and August 2005, records show, inspections of Global drivers resulted in drivers or vehicles being temporarily ordered off the road.

Mr. Maples filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2005 to prevent a creditor from assuming control of the company.

The bus that Mr. Maples used to transport the Houston-area nursing home residents had been without a valid state registration since July, the state transportation agency said.