Federal authorities have ordered the bus company involved in Friday’s crash to pull out its services. The orders ban two motor coach companies and their chief, Angel De La Torre from continuing their operations. The ban comes in the wake of a bus crash which killed seventeen people at Sherman, on the Texas-Oklahoma border.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that Angel Tours Inc and Iguana Busmex, both owned by Angel De La Torre have been prohibited from operating on the grounds that their unsafe vehicles pose an “imminent hazard” to the public.

The ban was issued after a bus owned by De La Torre’s company and carrying 54 pilgrims blew a tire on the northbound US 75, lost control and crashed into a guard rail. The crash left twelve dead on the spot while five others lost their lives in the hospitals. According to police estimates, 33 to 39 of the passengers including the driver have suffered mild to moderate injuries.

Federal officials claim that in June De La Torre had been warned against operating unsafe vehicles and had been ordered to shut down Angel Tours but he continued to operate it under another name, Iguana Busmex. Authorities also released the driving record of the bus driver which shows that the 52-year old Barrett Wayne Broussard had been cited by the police on three occasions since 2001.

-Kalyani Mookherji