Bus company shut down after fatal crash

• Tweet

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A company whose tour bus was involved in a crash that killed eight people in California is being forced to shut down, U.S. transportation safety officials said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration -- an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation -- said Friday it has ordered Scapadas Magicas LLC -- the company that owns the tour bus involved in the deadly crash in California Feb. 3 -- to "immediately cease operations."

The FMCSA said the company was "an imminent hazard to public safety."

"After the tragic crash earlier this week ... investigators quickly inspected this carrier's other two buses which had been operated on U.S. roads, and immediately shut them down," FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro said in a statement posted on the agency's website.

Department of Transportation investigators have determined Scapadas Magicas LLC "had failed to ensure that its vehicles were systematically inspected, repaired and maintained, and that its drivers were properly qualified and licensed, contrary to information provided by company officials in January 2013," the release said.

The Scapadas Magicas bus that crashed Feb. 3 was carrying passengers on a ski trip to Southern California when it struck two other vehicles near San Bernardino -- killing seven passengers on the bus and the driver of one of the other vehicles.