Fatal bus crash injures people on way to seek work with Arkansas legislator's firm

Tow truck operator Lee Maguire helps clean up the scene of a fatal wreck on Interstate 10 near Laplace on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016.
Tow truck operator Lee Maguire helps clean up the scene of a fatal wreck on Interstate 10 near Laplace on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016.

An Arkansas state representative will cooperate in the investigation into a fatal Louisiana bus crash that injured workers traveling to aid a company he co-owns.

The Associated Press reported that a bus on Sunday hit a firetruck and other vehicles on an elevated stretch of Interstate 10, killing two people and injuring dozens.

The bus, being driven by an undocumented man, was carrying disaster relief workers sent to aid a Leachville-based company whose principals include state Rep. David Wallace, according to The New Orleans Advocate.

Wallace, a Republican and part owner of Wallace, Rush, Schmidt Inc., declined to comment to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday afternoon, directing all questions to his attorney, Jesse Wimberly of Wimberly Law Firm in Mandeville, La.

Wimberly said Wallace, Rush, Schmidt Inc. had "no connection whatsoever" to the hiring of around two dozen workers, including at least one who was in the U.S. for years illegally.

The employees, he said, echoing Wallace's statements to The Advocate, were hired by a man named "Edgar," who was also responsible for scheduling the bus. Edgar's full name was not immediately available.

Because the bus never arrived at its destination, the disaster recovery firm was not able to check immigration status and would not have had any previous knowledge of those hired illegally by the liaison, Wimberly said.

He stressed that the company would have asked those unlawfully in the U.S. to leave the job site.

"We will answer any questions from law enforcement," Wimberly said of his client's cooperation in the investigation.

Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, of Honduras, was driving the bus at the time of the crash, according to the AP.

Amaya Rodriguez entered the U.S. illegally and does not have a U.S. driver's license, Louisiana State Police Trooper Melissa Matey said. On Monday, she said records showed Amaya Rodriguez had been ticketed Aug. 5 for driving without a license. He'd been pulled over that day because the temporary tag for the 2000 Nissan he was driving was not visible, Matey said.

The firetruck the bus hit Sunday night was blocking the scene of an earlier crash involving a single pickup. After the bus hit the firetruck, it slammed a Toyota Camry into a flatbed trailer towed by a pickup truck, then veered into three firefighters and the wrecked pickup, Matey said.

The wreck killed Jermaine Starr, 21, of Moss Point, Miss., a back-seat passenger in the Camry, and St. John the Baptist Parish district Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin. The injured included the other two firefighters, the bus driver, 24 bus passengers and a total of nine people in the car and pickups.

Amaya Rodriguez remained in custody Monday, a day after his arrest on two counts of negligent homicide and one each of negligent injury, reckless driving and driving without a license.

The bus was owned by AM Party Bus, a trade name for Kristina's Transportation LLC of Jefferson, La.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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