BASTROP, Texas (Talk1370.com) -- The driver of a concrete pump truck involved in a deadly school bus crash in 2024 was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday.
A Bastrop County judge handed down the sentence to Jerry Hernandez, 44, who pleaded guilty in June to two counts of manslaughter.
The March 22, 2024 crash killed 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a pre-K student, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who was driving a car behind the bus. Judge Christopher Duggan issued two concurrent 18-year sentences to Hernandez as part of the plea deal, which dropped initial charges of criminal negligent homicide.
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The wreck occurred when Hernandez's truck veered into oncoming traffic on Texas 21, striking a Hays school district bus carrying 44 pre-kindergarten students and 11 adults returning from a field trip. Many on the bus were left with critical or serious injuries.
According to an arrest affidavit, Hernandez told investigators he had smoked marijuana and used cocaine in the hours before going to work. The affidavit also revealed he had a "prohibited" status on his commercial driver's license from prior failed drug tests for marijuana and cocaine. Despite this, he was legally permitted to operate a concrete pump truck in Texas at the time of the crash. New state regulations require licenses with a "prohibited" status to be downgraded.
Following the tragedy, the Hays school district accelerated its plans to equip its entire fleet of buses with seat belts. The 2011 bus involved in the crash was one of the few without them at the time.
The Texas Legislature also passed Senate Bill 546 in May, which now requires school districts to report the presence and cost of seat belts on their buses. The law also removes the exemption that allowed older buses to operate without restraints.