Ed. Note: The following story contains information and links gathered through original reporting done by Lindsay Beyerstein. Please link to her original work at Obsidian Wings: "Tea bagger bus company sued over blaze that killed 23 seniors" or at Majikthise.One of the featured corporate sponsors of the Tea Party Express had to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits for its role in a bus fire that killed 23 elderly nursing home residents fleeing Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Photo by Matt Slocum, AP. That lead paragraph is from Lindsay Beyerstein's post at Obsidian Wings: Tea bagger bus company sued over blaze that killed 23 seniors. What exactly did the bus company do? From Beyerstein's report: Investigators later found that the bus was: driven by an undocumented migrant without a valid U.S. driver's license, lacking adequate fire extinguishers, and not licensed to operate in Texas. When the bus had mechanical problems before the crash, the driver took it to an unqualified mechanic who failed to notice the critical fault--an unlubricated axle that eventually melted and burst into flame.
Let's connect all the dots -- and again, all sources are to Beyerstein's excellent reporting: - BusBank hired Global Limo, even though "the subcontractor had a long record of federal and state safety violations, had entered bankruptcy, and was being sued/" (Source)
- Global Limo's owner Jim Maples listed Global Charters as his employer when he gave $5000 to the RNC in 2004. (Source)
And then -- from an MSNBC story, "Bus company guilty in Rita evacuation deaths"Bus company guilty in Rita evacuation deaths23 nursing home residents died; jury says fleet poorly maintainedThe company that owned a bus that exploded during last year’s Hurricane Rita evacuation, killing 23 nursing home residents, was found guilty Tuesday of conspiring to falsify logs and poorly maintaining its fleet. The company’s owner, James Maples, was acquitted on the conspiracy charge but convicted of falsifying logs and poorly maintaining the fleet. The trial stemmed from a federal investigation into a Global Limo Inc. bus that exploded and burned while stuck in traffic on Sept. 23, 2005, killing elderly patients too frail to escape. The patients’ oxygen tanks exploded as the flames engulfed the bus.
According to Beyerstein: BusBank's legal troubles are far from over, according to one report, more lawsuits are getting underway this month. The firm filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in August.
And bringing it all back home, we go back to Beyerstein one more time: The BusBank, a Chicago-based charter company, a "Tour Partner" of the Tea Party Express, a rolling protest sponsored by the Our Country Deserves Better PAC under the supervision of former Republican state legislator Howard Kaloogian, now a PR exec for the GOP-linked firm Russo, Marsh & Rogers. BusBank is also arranging to ferry Tea Baggers to their 9/12 march on Washington to voice their demands for unfettered capitalism.
To recap: Republicans are fanning the flames of fear and spreading lies for their Pro-Insurance-Company-Secession tour, in an effort to scare senior citizens into opposing Obama's health care plan -- while hiring a bus company that was so irresponsible it led to the death of twenty-three senior citizens. |
