Hays CISD board approves plan to accelerate having all buses equipped with seat belts

The Hays school district board of trustees unanimously approved a plan Monday to streamline efforts to have all buses equipped with seat belts weeks after the fatal bus crash in Bastrop County that led to the death of a prekindergarten student.

The district planned to have all active buses used in the daily 109 bus routes equipped with seat belts by April 30. However, the district also has more than 100 buses in reserves that are used daily typically by coaches for athletics or if a regular bus is out of service.

The district expects that it will need 80 support buses, and the predicament facing the district is how to get all of those buses to have seat belts as soon as possible. District spokesperson Tim Savoy said it can take a year to receive a bus after its purchase.

While the district did not give exact dates as to when this would be completed, board members approved a plan that includes a mix of purchasing new buses with bond money, retrofitting other buses and holding a new bond election next year to generate money in part to acquire new buses.

The board's plan includes retrofitting 13 buses with seat belts at a cost of about $468,000. The district believes this plan would be faster than purchasing new buses, although it's unclear where the money would come from. Members suggested using either bond interest money or surplus bond funds from the district's previous three bonds approved by voters in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Last year's bond also called for the purchase of nine new 2025 model buses, but the board is calling to accelerate the timeline of those purchases. Members then plan to vote at an upcoming meeting on using bond surplus or interest funds to purchase another 21 buses.

The board is considering a bond proposition next year that would include funds to purchase 24 new buses.

The Hays school bus crash happened about 2 p.m. March 22 on Texas 21 near its intersection with Caldwell Road in Bastrop County. A concrete truck veered into the opposite traffic lane and struck the bus taking 44 prekindergarten students and 11 adults back to Tom Green Elementary from a field trip to a zoo. The truck hit the bus, causing it to roll over, and leaving 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya dead.

The truck also hit another vehicle traveling behind the school bus, killing its driver, 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a University of Texas doctoral student who was weeks away from defending his dissertation.

Jerry Hernandez, the 42-year-old driver of the concrete truck, was arrested March 29 and charged with criminally negligent homicide.

The Hays bus involved in the March 22 crash, which is a 2011 model, was one of 15 buses set to be replaced with vehicles equipped with seat belts, according to the school district.

While the Hays school district is in compliance with state law, the district is looking to accelerate its timeline of having all buses with seat belts after community members raised concerns about the lack of seat belts on all of the buses.

In Texas, state law requires that all buses purchased after 2017 must have seat belts. It's unclear whether seat belts would have saved the life of Montoya.

Speakers at the meeting, such as Megan Owen, a parent of a first grader in the district, said they approve of the plan but would also like to see the district come up with a risk-assessment plan in the meantime. This plan would allow the district to decide when buses without seat belts will or will not be used, such as instances when a bus will be traveling on high-speed roads.

Kaitlyn Holden, a bus driver and parent of an elementary student in the district, said she supports the plan of having all buses with seat belts. However, she wants some type of action taken to ensure students will actually wear seat belts, as many currently don't listen when told to buckle up.

She said the drivers would like to see some type of disciplinary action associated with the seat belt rule.

"Without something put in place that states ... it has to be mandatory to wear the seat belt," Holden said, "it doesn't matter if there's seat belts in the buses or not."

Staff writers Keri Heath and Chase Rogers contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hays CISD accelerates plan to ensure all buses have seat belts