Driver’s Las Vegas crash never reported to Calif. agencies

Associated Press

Thursday, April 30, 2009 | 8:21 p.m.

California agencies had no record that the driver of a tour bus that crashed, killing himself and four French tourists, had struck a woman in Las Vegas in 2005 despite requirements to report infractions by commercial drivers, a state official said Thursday.

John Egnew, 69, of Corona, was driving the bus that hit a guard rail Tuesday and overturned in Soledad, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Cmdr. Scott Ragan of the Monterey County Sheriff's Department identified the dead passengers as Daniel Le Garrec, 68; Christian Montmayeur, 65; Jacqueline Montmayeur, 64; and Michael Taveira, 26. The four were among 34 French tourists and a Canadian tour guide who were in the bus when it crashed.

Four passengers remained hospitalized Thursday in critical condition.

In a statement issued Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his condolences and "deep emotion" to the victims' families. France's Foreign Ministry said the French Consulate was "mobilized to come to the aid of the families of our citizens, in liaison with the local authorities, hospitals in the region and the tour operator."

Egnew was driving a Weeks Enterprises-operated bus in December 2005 when he struck a 71-year-old woman in a Las Vegas crosswalk, according to police records. The company, which also owned the bus that crashed Tuesday, had reached a $750,000 settlement with Joan Smith and her husband last year, said San Francisco personal injury lawyer Kevin Lancaster.

But California Department of Motor Vehicles records contained no notice of the Las Vegas accident, showing that Egnew had only one violation for not wearing his seat belt in 2008.

Department spokesman Mike Marando said Nevada authorities never notified the state about the accident there despite requirements to report infractions by commercial drivers.

Court documents show that Egnew pleaded no contest in a Nevada court in 2006 to a misdemeanor count of starting improperly from a stopped position in the Las Vegas accident. He was fined $500 and required to pay about $475 in restitution to Smith.

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles said the agency at the time had no way to transmit the infraction electronically and had no record of receiving the information from the court.

Federal records show that Weeks Enterprises had a solid safety record in the two years leading up to Tuesday's crash. The California Highway Patrol has not released information on its safety record, citing the ongoing investigation by forensics specialists. A man who answered the phone at Weeks said the company was not commenting during the probe.

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Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala in Santa Clara and Lisa Leff in San Francisco contributed to this report.