Charges Filed in Deadly Arkansas Bus Accident

A bus driver from Texas who was involved in a crash last year that killed four people will be facing manslaughter charges--apparently there isn't enough evidence to charge him with negligent homicide, according to a prosecutor.

Felix Badillo Tapia faces four counts of manslaughter--each of which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Prosecutors have filed amended charges before a court hearing Wednesday. According to the laws in Arkansas, negligent homicide charges require proving a person was intoxicated by alcohol or drugs during the vehicle crash.

The prosecutor, Fletcher Long, said that responding Arkansas State Police troopers and local police did not conduct a field sobriety test on Tapia after the crash on Interstate 40. No officer could recall whether Tapia was acting strangely right after the crash. Tapia claims to have lost consciousness and fallen to the floor before the crash.

Tapia was driving the bus from Chicago to Dallas when it went across a median near Forrest City on Nov. 25, 2007. The bus careened into a pickup truck and a tractor trailer, killing three passengers of the bus and the driver of the pickup. Over 20 other passengers were also injured.

Tapia is still free on a $50,000 bond. His attorney has yet to respond to the bus driver. Alexander has been quoted as saying that Tapia was not intoxicated during the time of the crash, and only had "diet pills" in his possession.

The Dallas based company, Tornodo Bus Co.'s target market is Hispanic passengers. It has many routes to Mexico that it advertises. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered the bus company to cease operations after the crash because it was an "imminent hazard to public safety".