WASHINGTON - The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the company that operated the bus that caught fire, killing 23 nursing home residents escaping from Hurricane Rita, weren't the only targets of pointed criticism during a hearing last month on the incident.

The other major target was Bus Bank, the Chicago-based bus broker.

During the hearing by the National Transportation Safety Board, one board member attacked Bus Bank repeatedly, asking her fellow board members to include Bus Bank as contributing to the cause of the tragedy.

Board member Kathryn Higgins said Bus Bank added a different dimension to the situation because it arranged the buses that were used to transport care-home residents away from Hurricane Rita in September 2005.

The nursing home, Brighton Gardens, found Bus Bank on the Internet and arranged with the broker to supply two buses. Bus Bank contracted with Global Limo of Pharr, Texas, to send the coaches.

It is Higgins' contention that Brighton Gardens relied completely on Bus Bank to send a safe bus operator -- based on representations made on the Bus Bank Web site.

"Bus Bank sells safety" through its Web advertising, said Higgins.

In bold graphics and accompanying copy, the Bus Bank Web site touts what the company calls its "5-Star Guarantee." The No. 1 item under the guarantee is a statement that with Bus Bank "safety is first." Then it goes on to say that the bus operators used by Bus Bank "must undergo a due diligence process and meet additional safety-related requirements. We get to know the operators we work with and our qualification process is ongoing."

During its investigation of the bus fire, the NTSB determined that those claims by Bus Bank were little more than fiction. And Bus Bank executives admitted as much to investors, according to Higgins.

"They haven't looked behind the (FMCSA) rating" of the companies they use. "They admitted that," she said.

Investigators also found that Global Limo did not return a questionnaire Bus Bank sends to companies it uses, and that Bus Bank never met Global Limo personnel, never had been to its location, and never inspected its buses.

Bus Bank "is an organization that puts itself out there as safety oriented," said Higgins. "They can't back up their claims."

She said Brighton Gardens "relied on the Bus Bank Web site." The nursing home "turned to a broker who made claims that they couldn't back up.

"I have asked that we cite Bus Bank as a probable cause" of the tragedy, Higgins told her other board members. "When a company is selling safety they ought to be held responsible."

Joe Osterman, managing director of the NTSB, called the Bus Bank Web site "ridiculous."

Other board members, while expressing outrage over Bus Bank's advertising claims, said they did not believe the broker should be held as contributing to the cause of the fire.

NTSB Board Chairman Rosenker said it was a "terrible, terrible act of false advertising." While board member Deborah Hersman said it was "an issue of false representations."

In the end, the board decided to put the matter in the hands of the NTSB general counsel, Gary Halbert, who will contact the general counsel of Federal Trade Commission to determine if false and deceptive advertising charges should be brought against Bus Bank.

"The way to go after these guys is to go after them through the FTC," said Rosenker.