Rental Van With Low-Pressure Tire Warning Rolls, Injuring Six Children; No Charges To Be Filed

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

When Maggie Dajani realized that the tire-pressure warning light was on in the van she’d rented to take six teenagers and their parents to a One Direction concert in El Paso, she took the van back to the rental company. A representative of the company, Star Limo, told her not to worry. She then continued to the concert. Shortly afterwards, the van blew two tires and rolled over. Several motorists helped drag the ten passengers out of the van, which was filling with smoke. The children went to the hospital with various injuries, and one of them reportedly received one hundred and fifty stitches as a result.

Now, the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission has delivered a very, ahem, business-friendly verdict on the whole ordeal. Turns out that Star Limo is the beneficiary of a unique combination of regulatory conditions.

There is little doubt about the circumstances of the accident, as reported late last year:

According to State Police, the driver was driving at a safe speed when the outer tread of one of the van’s rear tires came off, causing the crash. Their report indicates Motor Transportation Police inspected Star Limo’s vehicles a month earlier, in August, and there were no safety violations.

Most business travelers and other people who rent vehicles fairly often can tell at least one story where they had to return their rental vehicle for some egregious issue that had been totally overlooked by the spectacularly indifferent employees that seem to universally populate rental lots, particularly ones located at or near an airport. It’s not difficult to imagine the apathetic response Ms. Dajani received when she tried to complain about a TPMS light; I’ve had exactly the same response when I’ve complained about TPMS lights in rental cars.

This would seem to be the kind of open-and-shut case that would result in civil — if not criminal — penalties for someone, but it turns out that Star Limo, and this rental van, fall into a very convenient hole in the enforcement framework:

But the case surrounding the rental van is unique. Motor Transportation Police said it’s too small to be a commercial vehicle, so it’s not within their enforcement. The Public Regulation Commission said since it was used as a rental vehicle, not a charter, it’s not in its jurisdiction to investigate the crash. However, the PRC can investigate Star Limo.

The results of that “investigation” were released last week:

Star Limo is regulated under the PRC because they offer limousine services. But Director Bryan Brock said that van was rented out and that no one from Star Limo was actually driving.

“Rental car companies don’t provide transportation,” Brock said. “They provide cars for people to use and to transport themselves but that’s different than what we oversee.”

Brock and other PRC officials said there is no official state agency that actually regulates rental car companies here in New Mexico.

Oh, okay, as long as that’s the case, I guess we can all just forget about it. And some people have forgotten about it — one of the regional news stations just did an advertorial-style piece encouraging local teens to hurry up and choose Star Limo for prom. But I wouldn’t go buying stock in Star Limo just yet. The next step for this story is surely a long day in a civil courtroom. And the moral of said story: If you are faced with believing that either a tire-pressure sensor or a rental-car agency employee is “defective”, choose the latter.

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • MadHungarian MadHungarian on Jul 10, 2015

    I am going to fess up right here to having driven a rental car all around Northern California for four days earlier this year with a TPMS indicator on. This being the first time I have ever experienced a TPMS indicator being lit (I have never owned a car with TPMS), it took a while for it to register in my brain what that little light with a tire cross section symbol was. I then actually did attempt to do something about it at a gas stop, but the gas station's air pump was broken. Now, this was not a van with ten people in it. It was a Dodge Avenger (don't judge, it was cheap) with me and my girlfriend (she doesn't read TTAC or I would not be writing this!). So, maybe I should have assumed we were GONNA DIE, as people are suggesting the van driver should have thought? Here's my problem. I've been driving for 40 years, 99.8 percent or something of that in cars with no TPMS. During that time I have had plenty of occasions to find that a tire has gotten low, or infrequently is inflated too high (ever driven a Corvair with all four tires at 40 PSI?). So, I absolutely KNOW that I have driven thousands of miles with a tire low or high enough to set off a TPMS, if there had been one, but golly, Corvairs, '76 Cadillacs, '74 Buicks etc. don't have 'em. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have trouble believing that the goofy dash light, that doesn't even say WHICH tire is low, is actually telling me whether the car is safe to drive or not.

  • Reliable Hydraulics Reliable Hydraulics on Jul 15, 2015

    This is very unfortunate. No matter what someone says, never sacrifice your safety because someone insists that it is okay. The company should have checked the air presser in her tire. As a rental company, there should be someone on site to check vehicles and make repairs as needed because cars constantly come and go.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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