By: Liz Teitz
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TNS)
Aug. 6—The concrete truck driver who fatally struck a Hays County school bus in March in Bastrop County has been indicted by a grand jury.
Jerry Hernandez, 43, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of criminally negligent homicide and two counts of manslaughter, District Attorney Bryan Goertz said.
A school bus carrying 44 preschoolers from Buda’s Tom Green Elementary was returning from a field trip to the Bastrop Zoo on March 22 when it was struck by a concrete pump truck. The bus rolled over and landed on its side while the truck struck a second vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson driving behind the bus.
One passenger on the bus, 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, was killed, as was Ryan Wallace, 33, a doctoral student and Bastrop resident who was driving the Hyundai.
Hernandez, who was driving the truck, was arrested one week after the crash and charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Nine lawsuits have been filed against the driver of the truck, according to CBS Austin.
Dashcam footage from the bus, released by the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, shows the truck veering over the highway centerline on Texas 21 before colliding with the school bus.
Hernandez told a Department of Public Safety trooper that he smoked marijuana the night before the crash, slept for about three hours and consumed cocaine around 1:30 a.m., about 12 hours before the crash, according to an arrest warrant. He also said he’d taken a 15-minute nap before leaving his work location just before the collision.
According to an incident report from the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, Hernandez told a deputy he fell asleep before the crash.
He later told DPS that an SUV traveling in front of the truck had braked suddenly, forcing him to swerve to the left into the oncoming traffic lane, but DPS said in its crash report that there was no evidence of that.
“Driver fatigue may have contributed to the crash,” DPS said in the crash report. “Drug use may also have contributed to the crash.”
Manslaughter is a second-degree felony, which is punishable by two to 20 years in prison; criminally negligent homicide is classified as a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.
Goertz declined to comment further while the case is pending.
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