The cement truck driver who allegedly killed two people when he barreled into a school bus carrying 40 preschoolers back from a field trip in Texas admitted to consuming cocaine and marijuana before getting behind the wheel.
Newly released dashcam footage of the tragedy also apparently caught Jerry Hernandez in a lie — the video showed no broken-down vehicle in front of his cement truck that forced him to swerve into oncoming traffic and collide with the bus.
The terrifying footage, taken from inside the Hays Consolidated Independent School District bus, shows the cement truck suddenly veer over the double yellow lines on a rural highway outside Austin.
The truck hit the bus on its side with enough force that it rolled across the pavement, sending a flurry of papers across the road.
The roof of the bus can be seen crumpling to the ground as bystanders rush to rescue the young victims.
The entire crash happened in less than 10 seconds.
The March 22 collision killed 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was on the bus, and Ryan Wallace, 33, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin, who was driving another vehicle hit by the cement truck.
Hernandez, 42, was arrested Friday and charged with criminally negligent homicide, Sgt. Deon Cockrell of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
While in the hospital, he told officers he had smoked marijuana the night before the crash, according to court documents obtained by KVUE.
He also allegedly admitted to consuming cocaine at 1 a.m. after sleeping only three hours.
Hernandez claimed he was forced to make the sudden swerve to avoid a vehicle that broke down suddenly in front of him — but the dashcam footage shows only a clear path in front of the cement truck’s lane.
The school bus was filled with 40 pre-schoolers from Tom Green Elementary School in Buda and 11 adults who were returning from a field trip to the zoo.
Four people were airlifted from the crash site in critical condition, and six more with serious injuries were taken by ambulance to hospitals.
The school district said the bus did not have seat belts.
If convicted, Hernandez could be handed a prison sentence of two years and a fine up to $10,000.
With Post wires
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