DALLAS — The owner of a Houston bus company has been indicted on federal charges stemming from the 2008 Texas crash that killed 17 people on their way to a religious conclave, authorities announced Wednesday.
Angel de la Torre of Houston and an associate are charged with making false statements on federal forms and other offenses stemming from the crash in Sherman, 60 miles north of Dallas. The indictment was returned on May 30, authorities said in a news release, and de la Torre and his associate were taken into custody when the indictment was unsealed.
The indictment charges de la Torre and his company, Angel Tours, with one count of conspiracy to make false statements, four counts of making false statements and one count of operating a commercial motor vehicle after being placed out of service.
It was not immediately known whether de la Torre, 64, had an attorney. Phil Sellers, a Houston attorney who represented de la Torre in civil litigation stemming from the crash, said he isn't representing him in the criminal case.
Fifty-five members of Houston's Vietnamese Catholic community were headed to an annual conclave in Carthage, Mo., when the bus plunged over a highway bridge just after midnight on Aug. 8, 2008.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the crash was caused when a retreaded tire on the right front axle was punctured by an unknown object. The retread itself wasn't cited as the cause, but the NTSB noted that the tire was affixed to the front axle illegally, that Angel Tours didn't have the authority to leave Texas and that the company that inspected the bus wasn't equipped to judge whether it should be on the road.
Yen-Chi Le, whose mother was among those killed, said she was pleased to see the indictment, the first significant criminal action to result from the crash, but was puzzled by the timing.
"The fact that they waited almost five years before issuing an indictment isn't ideal," said Le, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston who has become a well-known advocate for improved bus safety. "But hopefully it will be a deterrent for other (bus) operators who think infractions won't be noticed."
