The driver of the concrete truck that struck a Hays school district bus carrying 44 prekindergarten students on Friday, causing the deaths of one student and a driver behind the bus, said he only got three hours of sleep before starting his shift and had used cocaine earlier that morning.
A copy of an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by the American-Statesman shows that the driver of the truck was Jerry Hernandez, 42. Those documents state that Hernandez told investigators he had smoked marijuana the night before.
Hernandez then told investigators that he did a “small amount of cocaine” Friday morning, the affidavit said. Hernandez refused to voluntarily give a blood sample at the scene.
Hernandez has not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon, Bastrop District Attorney Bryan Goertz told the American-Statesman.
The crash happened about 2 p.m. Friday on Texas 21 near its intersection with Caldwell Road just west of Cedar Creek. A concrete truck collided with a school bus carrying 44 pre-K students and 11 adults from Tom Green Elementary School on their way home from a field trip to a zoo in Bastrop County, law enforcement officials said.
Even with this admission, Goertz said it could be difficult to prove impairment.
He noted that the investigator with the Texas Department of Public Safety told Goertz that he didn’t believe Hernandez was impaired at the time, but that he was sleepy and likely nodded off while driving. If Hernandez indeed dozed off while driving, then Goertze said there is “nothing criminal” if it can’t be proved that Hernandez was impaired at the time.
The concrete truck driven by Hernandez bears the logo of FJM Concrete Pumping LLC, according to surveillance video captured by the bus’s external cameras. Reached Thursday afternoon, the owner, Francisco Martinez, declined to comment on the crash and deferred questions to his attorney, who did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The crash caused the death of Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a pre-K student at Tom Green Elementary School, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a doctoral student at the University of Texas. Dozens more students and teachers were injured as a result of the wreck.
The Smithville-based company has one driver and one “power unit,” according to online U.S. Department of Transportation records. In this context, a “power unit” can be a truck, bus or other kind of large vehicle. The truck appears to be a concrete pump truck, a type of construction vehicle equipped with a retractable concrete pumping boom.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Staff writer Chase Rogers and Deputy Managing Editor Andy Sevilla contributed to this report.
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