Texas bus crash: Concrete truck owner cited in 2021

AUSTIN, Texas — The owner of the concrete company involved in last month’s deadly school bus crash in Bastrop County was previously cited for employing an unlicensed driver.

Hays County court documents confirm the owner of FJM Concrete Pumping, Francisco Martinez Jr., got the ticket in October 2021 and paid it on Tuesday, April 2. Martinez pleaded no contest and paid $316 for the misdemeanor traffic violation.

On March 22, an FJM truck crashed into a Hays CISD school bus on State Highway 21, killing 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who was driving in a car behind the bus.

The driver of the concrete pumper truck, Jerry Hernandez, is charged with criminally negligent homicide.

RELATED: Employer of man charged in deadly bus crash did not perform background check before hiring, documents show

Investigators say he admitted to using cocaine the morning of the crash and he’d failed drug tests in 2020, 2022 and 2023 but didn’t go through a background check before working for FJM.

According to KVUE’s media partners at the Austin-American Statesman, the office of Hays County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace John Burns issued a warrant for Martinez over the ticket on Monday. The ticket had been unpaid and was delinquent.

“We held off on warrants from 2021 and gave extra time to get citation (sic) taken care of due to Covid, but now that time has passed, we are issuing them when we come across them,” the office said in a statement to the Statesman.

The Statesman reports the unlicensed driver from the ticket was not Hernandez.

RELATED: Truck driver allegedly admitted to drug use before deadly school bus crash in Bastrop County

Court documents revealed Martinez failed to conduct a background check before completing the hiring process with Hernandez. Martinez allegedly did not complete verification of Hernandez’s CDL or status.

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