The driver of a concrete truck that crashed into a school bus in Texas on March 22, killing two people, told investigators he had used cocaine that morning, according to reports.
The Hays CISD school bus was transporting 44 pre-kindergarten students and 11 adults back from a visit to the Bastrop Zoo when truck slammed into it, Fox 4 reported Thursday.
Dashcam footage shows the bus going west on Highway 21. However, the truck that was going the opposite way veers into the path of the bus and apparently slams into the side of it, per KVUE.
The bus driver tries to safely move out of the way before the collision, but makes one full roll on the roadway after the crash:
The Fox report continued:
The video’s release came just hours before KEYE-TV obtained court documents saying the concrete truck driver, 42-year-old Jerry Hernandez, told investigators he smoked marijuana the night before the crash, only got a few hours of sleep and consumed cocaine in the morning before work.
The crash happened around 2 p.m. The driver reportedly refused a voluntary blood draw. He has not yet been charged.
Lee Jackson, a crash/accident investigator and former Fort Worth Police Officer, said when he learned the man reportedly claimed he only had three hours of sleep before the incident he was deeply concerned, according to KEYE.
“[The marijuana] would certainly explain the fatigue, would explain the drifting in oncoming traffic,” Jackson added.
One of the individuals killed in the crash was five-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was riding the bus at the time with the other children. The second victim was a man in a third vehicle.
5-year-old pre-K student killed in school bus crash outside of Austin, Texas, identified https://t.co/Hm8LQjlA0y pic.twitter.com/HBGWFEY9Q1
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 25, 2024
KENS 5 identified the adult victim as 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who died when his car hit the back of the bus.
CBS Austin spoke on Thursday with Kathleen McElroy, a former UT professor of 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, the man killed in the Bastrop-Caldwell school bus crash last Friday.https://t.co/0qOTLK4PUk
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) March 29, 2024
The school bus did not have seatbelts, and the Fox article said. “In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that required seatbelts on any newly acquired school buses. The district says the bus involved in the Bastrop County crash was from 2011.”
The outlet noted school officials are working to ensure the district’s future buses will have seatbelts.
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