SAN ANTONIO -- Authorities ordered a third charter bus company that is linked to the bus operator involved in the fatal crash that killed 17 Houston-area residents in north Texas last week to cease its operations.

Liberty Charters and Tours of San Antonio was leasing buses owned by Angel de la Torre, the operator of Angel Tours and Iguala Busmex. On Thursday, federal authorities ordered the company to cease all business with the Houston-based Iguala Busmex and Angel Tours.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration order said that Liberty Charter's agreement with de la Torre pose an “imminent hazard to public safety.”

De la Torre's buses were hired last week by several Vietnamese-American Catholic Church congregations to take members to a religious festival in Missouri. One of the buses crashed outside of Sherman early Friday morning and 17 people were killed.

Federal regulators said that neither of companies was licensed to operate outside of the state. Authorities said too that de la Torre has just switched operating his buses under the Angel Tour name to Iguala Busmex because regulators had already told Angel Tours to stop operating.

On Sunday, regulators ordered Angel Tours and Iguala Buxmex to cease operations.

The Imminent Hazard Order found that the two companies' motor carrier operations posed an 'imminent hazard' to public safety based upon their present state of unacceptable safety compliance, their failure to adequately establish safety management systems, and their lack of reponsibility to ensure their vehicles are properly maintained.

Back in May 2008, the FMCSA identified Angel Tours as being a high risk carrier due to safety violations detected during roadside safety inspections. To date, Angel Tours has not provided the Agency with evidence that they have corrected the problems.

The FMCSA also determined Iguala Busmex (the new company Angel Tours formed after closing down) applied for operating authority on June 26, but they did not grant them authority to transport passengers. This is because the new company, just like the old one, failed to fully comply with federal safety requirements.