Concrete pump truck driver in school bus crash deemed ‘imminent hazard’
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Federal transportation authorities say the driver of the concrete pump truck involved in a fatal crash with a school bus full of pre-K children on March 22 was prohibited from driving a commercial vehicle because of multiple failed drug tests, and they have disqualified him from further commercial driving, according to a March 29 order.
“This finding means that based upon your present state of unacceptable safety compliance, your operation of any commercial motor vehicle substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death if not discontinued immediately,” the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in its disqualification order.
The pump truck driver, 43-year-old Jerry Hernandez, was already prohibited three times since 2020 from commercial driving because of positive drug tests. At the time of the deadly crash, Hernandez was listed as “prohibited” in FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse due to testing positive for cocaine in April 2023, according to the Administration.
Concrete truck driver arrested, admitted to consuming cocaine before fatal bus crash
Hernandez’s pump truck veered into oncoming traffic on State Highway 21, struck a Hays Consolidated Independent School District bus and the bus flipped. Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, 5, was on the bus and died. Ryan Wallace, a 33-year-old University of Texas doctoral student, was killed while driving a car behind the school bus.
Law enforcement arrested Hernandez on March 29 for criminally negligent homicide, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in state jail and a fine of $10,000, according to an arrest affidavit.
Hernandez should have been removed from “safety-sensitive functions,” like driving, before the crash, according to the affidavit. However, “state driver’s licensing agencies are not required to downgrade CDL statuses until 11/18/2024 according to changes In the Federal Register,” the affidavit states.
Due to the timing of the federal rule changes, Hernandez’s commercial driver’s license was still valid at the time of the crash even though his status was listed as “prohibited” in the Clearinghouse.
FMCSA said it is working with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to disqualify Hernandez’s commercial driver’s license.
KXAN reached out to DPS to ask about how it tracks the status of licenses in the Clearinghouse.
“When we come across someone operating a CMV during a roadside inspection and they are in the Clearinghouse, we will place the driver out of service,” the agency said in an email.
KXAN followed up on that question with a phone call to the regional public information officer, who explained the only other way to proactively stop someone – who, per the Clearinghouse, shouldn’t be driving – is if a state or federal audit looked into a specific driver, company or case.
From St. David’s Hospital, Hernandez admitted to a state trooper he smoked marijuana and slept for only three hours the night before the crash and took cocaine the morning of the collision at about 1 a.m. During that conversation, troopers said Hernandez fell asleep multiple times, according to an arrest affidavit.
The truck Hernandez was operating at the time of the crash was registered under FJM Concrete LLC and the company’s owner Francisco Martinez, according to Hernandez’s arrest affidavit. Martinez told investigators he “had not verified the status of Mr. Hernandez’s commercial driver’s license or his status through the federal Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse database before employing him as a driver,” the affidavit states.
Separate from the school bus crash, KXAN discovered Martinez was ticketed in 2021 for employing an unlicensed driver, a misdemeanor. That ticket was not resolved, according to the office of Hays County Justice of the Peace Precinct 4, and a warrant was issued on April 1.
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