"A running joke"

Remember Global Limo Inc., the Pharr company that got shut down not long after one of its buses caught fire, killing 23 Hurricane Rita evacuees?

Turns out the Brownsville, Edinburg, Los Fresnos, McAllen and Sharyland school districts, and IDEA Academy charter school in Donna all used the bus company to transport students, according to The Dallas Morning News:

Nearly every one of the coaches, teachers and administrators from eight school districts surveyed by The Dallas Morning News recalled a bad experience on a Global bus. But 11 Valley districts continued to hire the company last spring because they had limited options and little knowledge about the company's safety record. ...

Before the Global bus exploded near Dallas in September, the company was a running joke among band directors, and Valley schools considered it a last resort.

By the way, the driver, whom the Dallas County Sheriff's Office blames for the deaths, is cooperating with the federal investigation into the deadly crash, and a U.S. magistrate judge has granted him bail.