The driver of the concrete truck that crashed into a school bus in Texas on March 22, killing two people, reportedly told investigators that he had used cocaine that morning.
The Hayes CISD school bus was carrying 44 preschoolers and 11 adults from a visit to the Bastrop Zoo when it was struck by a truck, Fox 4 reported. report Thursday.
Drive recorder footage show The bus was heading west on Highway 21, according to KVUE. However, it appears that the truck, which was traveling the wrong way, veered off the path of the bus and collided with the side of the bus.
The bus driver attempted to move safely out of the way before the collision, but he swerved around the roadway after the collision.
The Fox report continued:
The video was released after KEYE-TV reported that the concrete truck driver, Jerry Hernandez, 42, told investigators that he had smoked marijuana the night before the crash, had only gotten a few hours’ sleep, and was using cocaine in his car. This was just hours before court documents showed he had said he had ingested it. Morning before work.
The accident occurred around 2 p.m., and the driver reportedly refused to voluntarily take a blood sample. He has not yet been charged.
Lee Jackson, accident/accident investigator, former Fort Worth police officer; Said Mr KEYE said he was very concerned when he learned that the man had reportedly claimed to have only had three hours of sleep before the incident.
“[The marijuana] That would certainly explain the fatigue, and it would also explain the drifting of oncoming traffic,” Jackson added.
One of those killed in the accident was 5-year-old Ulises Rodríguez Montoya, who was riding the bus with other children at the time. The second victim was a man in the third vehicle.
The identity of the 5-year-old preschool student killed in a school bus crash outside Austin, Texas has been identified. https://t.co/Hm8LQjlA0y pic.twitter.com/HBGWFEY9Q1
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 25, 2024
kens 5 identified The adult victim, 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, died when his car collided with the back of the bus.
CBS Austin spoke Thursday with Kathleen McElroy, the former UT professor of Ryan Wallace, 33, who was killed in last Friday’s Bastrop-Caldwell school bus crash.https://t.co/0qOTLK4PUk
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) March 29, 2024
According to the Fox article, the school bus did not have seat belts. “In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring seat belts on newly purchased school buses. The district said the bus involved in the Bastrop County crash was from 2011. .”
The newspaper noted that school officials are working to ensure that the district’s future buses have seat belts.
