A tragic incident unfolded on March 22 in Texas, resulting in the death of a man and a young boy following a collision involving a school bus. The driver of the truck involved, Jerry Hernandez, aged 42, was arrested on Friday and charged with criminally negligent homicide. The arrest took place without incident at a residence in Bastrop County.
According to reports, Hernandez admitted to authorities that he had smoked marijuana the night before the crash and had consumed cocaine in the early hours of the morning. Despite being asked, he refused to provide a blood sample for analysis. The collision occurred on a rural highway outside Austin, near Texas State Highway 21 and Caldwell Road in Bastrop County.
The school bus was transporting over 40 pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary School who were returning from a zoo field trip. The bus also carried 11 adults. Tragically, the crash claimed the lives of 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a passenger on the bus, and Ryan Wallace, a 33-year-old doctoral student at the University of Texas who was driving a vehicle hit by the truck.
Following the collision, emergency responders airlifted four individuals in critical condition from the scene, while six others with serious injuries were transported by ambulance to hospitals. Video footage released by the Hays Consolidated Independent School District captured the immediate aftermath of the crash, showing bystanders rushing to aid the bus passengers.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, with authorities yet to disclose the speed at which the vehicles were traveling at the time of the collision. It was noted that the school bus did not have seatbelts installed.
