Bus owned by troubled El Paso firm crashes along I-25 in Colorado; 5 critically injured, driver charged

WALSENBURG, Colorado -- A speeding charter bus from El Paso carrying 49 people went out of control and flipped about three hours south of Denver along an icy Interstate 25 on Thursday, the Colorado State Patrol told ABC-7.

Multiple injuries were reported in the crash, including five people who taken to hospitals in critical condition, according to a police spokesman.

Images from the scene showed the bus was emblazoned with the logo of the El Paso-based Los Paisanos bus lines, and police charged 53-year-old bus driver Alberto Torres with careless driving causing bodily injury.

Torres becomes at least the third bus driver for the troubled Los Paisanos to face charges stemming from crashes since 2008. The firm was also hit with a jury verdict of over $100 million in the past decade due to safety issues.

Thursday morning's crash happened about 5 miles south of Walsenburg. The state patrol said the bus was headed northbound on I-25 when the driver lost control and rolled it over. Trooper Josh Lewis described the interstate as "slick at the time," and told ABC-7 that "excessive speed" for the icy roadway conditions was considered a factor in the crash.

The state patrol indicated that crews had to work to get passengers ranging in age between 4 and 83 out of the bus; there were no fatalities, but five passengers suffered life-threatening injuries while numerous others had less serious injuries described as minor or moderate. Lewis said the victims were all taken to hospitals in Walsenburg, Trinidad and Pueblo.

The majority of those traveling on the bus spoke only or mostly Spanish and Lewis said authorities had to bring in translators to communicate with the passengers at a nearby community center.

Mannie Kalman, an El Paso attorney who represents Los Paisanos, told ABC-7 that he couldn't provide any further details about the crash or comment on the charges against the driver. But he indicated that bus line managers were flying to Colorado to assist the crash victims, maintaining that Los Paisanos' first concern was the safety and security of its passengers.

However, Los Paisanos has had a troubled history. Most notably, ABC-7 archives show a jury in December 2010 ordered the bus company to pay out more than $132 million to the victims of a crash that claimed two lives on a snowy Colorado road in 2005.

Kalman on Thursday said that jury verdict was later reduced to $5 million on appeal.

In the case, the jury found the vehicle the passengers rode in had bald tires, no safety belts and hadn't been serviced in 188,000 miles. The lawyer who won that near record-setting judgment at the time accused Los Paisanos of treating their customers like cattle.

In the days following that verdict, ABC-7 archives showed another Los Paisanos bus crashed into a cattle hauler along U.S. 54 in New Mexico and injured 20 passengers.

There was also a December 2008 crash on U.S. 54 in which two people were killed and 50 others injured, according to the ABC-7 archives. The bus driver was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide.

And in April 2009, another Los Paisanos driver was arrested for allegedly driving drunk, ABC-7 archives reflected. A group of Horizon City cheerleaders were on board at the time of that arrest.