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

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.