BUDA, TX - The driver of the concrete pumper truck that swerved into the wrong lane and crashed into a Hays CISD school has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to court documents.
Court documents revealed that 42-year-old Jerry Hernandez allegedly admitted to drug use the night before and the morning of the crash. Hernandez had used cocaine and was driving on just three hours of sleep the day his truck crashed into the bus.
The bus carrying a group of pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary on March 22 lost two of its passengers.
The crash killed 5-year-old student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin. Dozens of others were also injured.
Hernandez told the Texas Department of Public Safety that he swerved his truck to avoid a vehicle that broke suddenly in front of him, but footage of the crash released by Hays CISD tells a different story.
Video of the collision shows the driver of the school bus trying to avoid the crash by partially moving onto the shoulder before it was hit.
Hernandez also refused to provide a blood sample for analysis.
GoFundMe pages have been set up to support the families of the deceased and the injured.
GoFundMe for 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya can be found here: https://gofund.me/026b0f7e
GoFundMe for Ryan Wallace can be found here: https://gofund.me/8b75f962
GoFundMe for the Tom Green Elementary Hornets: https://gofund.me/000c1be6
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