Matey did not know whether the driver, identified as Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, of Honduras, was an employee of that company.
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“This is a very sad day for all first responders in Louisiana”, said Colonel Mike Edmonson, Louisiana State Police Superintendent. If so, please provide the exact reason for such consideration.
Matey says the bus also hit three St. John the Baptist Parish firefighters, killing one and leaving a second in critical condition.
Rodriguez is charged with two counts of negligent homicide and is undocumented and has no legal driver’s license.
A bus with an unlicensed driver spun out of control near New Orleans on Sunday, killing two people and injuring 41, while taking volunteers to help with Louisiana flood relief, officials said.
The firefighters had used one of their trucks to block the right lane of the interstate so they, police and the towing company could deal with the crash. Sharon Sealy said Tuesday. He doesn’t have a driver’s license and is in this country illegally, state police have said.
The company that hired the workers on board the bus, Wallace Rush, Schmidt Inc., confirmed that Amaya had received at least five citations between September 2012 and August 5 of this year, little more than three weeks before the fatal crash.
The company’s three owners include Arkansas state Rep. David Wallace, a first-term Republican from Leachville, and Eddie Schmidt, an elected constable in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.
Sunday’s crash marked the sixth time since September 2012 that Amaya Rodriguez had been ticketed for driving without a license, The New Orleans Advocate reported (http://bit.ly/2bOIYzt).
Wimberly says the bus involved in Sunday’s crash was hired by an independent headhunter, and “it appears the bus company hired the driver”.
The owner of the bus is Kristina’s Transportation LLC/AM Party Bus out of Jefferson, LA. State police will continue to lead the investigation of the crash itself, the statement said.
The number given by directory assistance for Kristina’s Transportation is that of Ahmed Salem, who said he sold the company to a Christian Lombardo in January.
Messages left by The Associated Press with the party bus reservations agent were not returned.
Police gave this account: Chauvin, 36 of Gramercy, was standing with two firefighters by the interstate guardrail after responding to a crash early that morning.
Matey says the firetruck was blocking traffic from the scene of an earlier crash.
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Matey said the wreck killed Jermaine Starr, 21, of Moss Point, Mississippi, a back-seat passenger in a Camry that the bus rear-ended, and the district fire chief of St. John the Baptist Parish, Spencer Chauvin.
