TxDOT to hold committee-led review of fatal Hays school bus, concrete pump truck crash

State highway officials will conduct a committee-led review of the contributing factors to last month's wreck involving a Hays school district bus and a concrete pump truck that killed two people, including a prekindergarten student aboard the bus.

The Texas Department of Transportation reviews all fatal crashes to determine whether safety enhancements to roadways are needed. The outcome of such reviews — which typically conclude after any criminal investigations have finished — will inform the TxDOT committee's recommendations.

"We review all fatality crashes to assess the need for safety enhancements and will do so in this case," TxDOT spokesperson Brad Wheelis said in a statement.

The March 22 crash took place on Texas 21 near the state highway's intersection with Caldwell Road, just west of Cedar Creek. Surveillance video captured by the school bus's external cameras shows the eastbound concrete truck swerved into the opposing lane, causing the westbound bus carrying 44 pre-K students and 11 adults to tip over.

The bus was returning to Tom Green Elementary School from a zoo field trip in Bastrop County. Pre-K student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, 5, and Ryan Wallace, a 33-year-old University of Texas doctoral student who was driving behind the bus, died in the crash.

To what degree the highway was a factor in the crash is unclear. The concrete pump truck driver, Jerry Hernandez, 43, was charged with criminally negligent homicide. According to charging documents, he told investigators he only got about three hours of sleep the night before, smoked marijuana before bed and then took cocaine at 1 a.m.

Shortly after the crash, Hernandez told a Caldwell County sheriff's deputy he fell asleep at the wheel, according to an incident report obtained by the American-Statesman. Later that same day, he told a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper the crash happened after he had to swerve to avoid an SUV traveling in front of the concrete truck, according to charging documents.

The DPS is the lead agency investigating the crash. In an interview, DPS Sgt. Deon Cockrell said Wednesday that the investigation was pending.

Crash history, improvements to Texas 21

The state has made recent safety improvements to the 7.5-mile stretch of Texas 21 between Texas 130 and FM 812 where the crash took place.

Years before the crash, TxDOT widened the roadway from near the San Marcos Regional Airport to Texas 71, adding passing lanes and turn lanes intermittently along the corridor, including the stretch between Texas 130 and FM 812, Wheelis said. The improvements to the segment between the airport and Texas 130 was completed in November 2022, and the segment from Texas 130 to Texas 71 was completed in October 2021.

In addition, centerline profile striping and rumble strips were added to alert drivers when they veer out of their lane. The speed throughout the 7.5-mile segment is 65 mph. A speed study conducted last spring found the speed "was appropriate," Wheelis said.

The TxDOT committee might review the history of crashes on the road. From 2021 to March 28, 2024, there were at least 181 crashes on the 7.5-mile stretch of Texas 21 between Texas 130 and FM 812, according to a Statesman review of TxDOT crash data.

Five of the reported wrecks in that period included a fatality. More than 60% — or 111 of the crashes — had no reported injuries while about 22% had suspected injuries. In the same period, four crashes included a bus, two of which were listed as school buses.

In the same period, none of the crashes with buses had reported fatalities, according to the crash data. Public school buses are engineered with compartmentalization in mind — with designs where passengers are protected by closely spaced seats with energy-absorbing seat backs. This arrangement makes school buses some of the safest vehicles on U.S. roads, experts told the Statesman.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: TxDOT to hold committee-led review of Hays school bus crash