DPS report provides new details of fatal Hays district school bus crash

Skye Seipp and Chase Rogers, Austin American-Statesman
·3 min read

A crash report released by the Texas Department of Transportation on Thursday provided further insight into the fatal wreck involving a concrete pump truck and a Hays district school bus carrying 44 prekindergartners and 11 adults.

While most of the details in the report were previously known, the crash report states that Jerry Hernandez, the driver of the FJM Concrete Pumping truck, was heading east on Texas 21 on March 22 when he swerved into the westbound lane.

A Hays district school bus driving west on the highway, returning from a field trip to a zoo in Bastrop, then swerved to the right to try to avoid the truck but was unsuccessful, according to the report filled out by Texas Department of Public Safety investigators. The impact caused the bus to flip counterclockwise and do a complete rotation before landing upright.

Hernandez continued driving in the westbound lane, the report said, causing another vehicle behind the bus to swerve into the eastbound lane to avoid being struck by the concrete pump truck. It was previously unreported that there was a fourth vehicle involved in the incident.

Hernandez then hit a Hyundai being driven by 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a doctoral student at the University of Texas who died as a result of the collision.

A graphic shows the trajectory of the four vehicle involved in March 22, 2024, crash where two people where killed, including a prekindergartner student.
A graphic shows the trajectory of the four vehicle involved in March 22, 2024, crash where two people where killed, including a prekindergartner student.

The report states that Hernandez, 42, continued driving through the westbound lane, going through a guardrail before ultimately turning the concrete pump truck over on its side.

The other victim in the crash was Tom Green Elementary pre-K student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was 5 years old.

Hernandez initially told investigators with the Texas Department of Public Safety that he only got about three hours of sleep the night before, in addition to smoking marijuana before bed and then taking cocaine at 1 a.m. The crash report obtained Thursday notes that a toxicology report is pending from a blood sample taken from Hernandez.

Last week, Hernandez was charged and arrested with criminally negligent manslaughter in Bastrop County.

Federal transportation authorities said Hernandez was an "imminent hazard to public safety" behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle, citing alleged drug violations and a failure to complete "any treatment plan" last year, according to an order from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration disqualifying his commercial driver's license.     

According to charging documents for Hernandez, Francisco Martinez Jr., the owner of FJM Concrete Pumping LLC, told investigators he did not verify the status of Hernandez's commercial license or his driver's history prior to employing him. Despite these violations and the resulting "prohibited" status of his commercial driver's license, Hernandez was permitted to operate the concrete pump truck in Texas.

In October 2021, Martinez was ticketed for employing an unlicensed driver. On Tuesday, Martinez pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor offense and paid the then-delinquent $316 ticket, closing the case, according to Hays County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace John Burns.

Reached by the American-Statesman Thursday afternoon, Martinez declined to comment and deferred questions to his attorney, Thomas Fagerberg. Messages to Fagerberg were not immediately returned.

A defense attorney listed in Bastrop County online court records as representing Hernandez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: DPS report offers new details of fatal Hays school bus crash