Feds order bus line to stop operations

HOUSTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. officials ordered a company linked to a Texas bus crash in which 17 people died to cease operations because it posed an "imminent hazard."

The orders issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was against motor coach operations Angel Tours Inc.; Iguana Busmex Inc., and the two carriers' chief, Angel De La Torre, CNN reported. Authorities say De La Torre ran his bus fleet under the Iguana name after Angel Tours was ordered to cease operations in June.

The action follows Friday's bus crash, in which the driver of the bus apparently lost control of the vehicle, which smashed into a guardrail before landing in a gully near the Texas-Oklahoma state line. Seventeen people died and more than 30 of the other 54 passengers plus the driver were injured.

"Angel Tours and Iguana currently operate vehicles in a mechanically unsafe operating condition which, if operated, would pose an imminent hazard to the public," the orders said.

Also on Sunday, four people died when a bus taking more than 40 passengers to a casino overturned near Tunica, Miss., CNN reported.

Meanwhile, the Nevada Highway Patrol was investigating what caused a bus carrying employees of Primm, Nev., area casinos and businesses to crash Sunday, injuring 29 of its 33 passengers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.