State Police: Bus Driver in the US Illegally

Two people were killed and 41 were injured in a crash on Interstate 10 near LaPlace on Sunday morning, according to Acadian Ambulance.

St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, 36, died, and a passenger in another auto that was also struck was killed, Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Melissa Matey said.

Two other people in the Camry and five people in a pickup truck that was also hit while parked at the scene were transported to hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, Matey said.

Trooper Melissa Matey told NOLA.com ‘ The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/2bKiYW8 ) that the bus driver did not have a commercial license and was not authorized to drive a bus.

The bus crashed on Interstate 10 in LaPlace and stuck a fire truck that was stopped and attending to an accident, knocking three firefighters over a guardrail and killing Spencer Chauvin, the district fire chief of the St. John the Baptist Parish Office of Fire Services.

Louisiana state troopers and St. John the Baptist firefighters were at the scene of an accident in which a speeding pickup truck had hit a guard rail on I-10 shortly before 7 a.m. today, Matey said.

Details are scarce right now, but State Police said one of the vehicles involved in the second accident was a charter bus full of volunteers headed to help with Louisiana flood relief. Starr, who occupied the other rear seat, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Matey said the driver, identified as Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, of Honduras, was an employee of that company. Rodriguez is from Honduras and is in custody pending multiple charges.

The people on the bus, which is owned by AM Party Bus/Christina’s Transportation, were “daily hires” who were in the area to do construction and rebuild following the devastating flooding that hit Louisiana, she said.

The two others firefighters – William Mack, 35, and Nicholas Sale, 32 – were hospitalized with moderate and critical injuries.

He will be taken to the St. John Parish Correctional Center to be booked with criminal charges, including negligent homicide. Beal was treated and released from River Parishes Hospital, while Saale remained in critical but stable condition at University Medical Center. Two other passengers in the vehicle, Vontravous Kelly and David Jones, both also from Moss Point, were sent to an area hospital for treatment. “Louisiana has the “Move Over” law in place to protect our first responders on our roadways”, he said, adding “Please adhere to this law and slow down when approaching emergency vehicles and disabled vehicles on the road”.

“It is a sad day in St. John the Baptist Parish as we lost one of the bravest and most dedicated firefighters that I know”, Robottom wrote in a post on the organization’s Facebook page Sunday afternoon. It is heartbreaking, especially after this same group of individuals helped to guide St. John the Baptist Parish safely through Hurricane Isaac, the February tornado and the flood event last week.