A Texas school bus involved in a crash that killed two people, including a five-year-old child, was not equipped with seatbelts and was not required to have them.
The Hays Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) revealed that the bus involved in Friday afternoon’s crash was a 2011 model.
“The district began buying buses with seat belts in 2017, when the state law changed for buses purchased in that year and later,” according to a statement on Saturday night.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed a bill into law in June 2017 which required districts to pay for three-point-seatbelts, better known as shoulder-to-lap belts, on all new-model buses, unless a school board votes against purchasing them due to budget constraints.
The school bus, which was carrying 40 preschool-age children and nearly a dozen adults from Tom Green Elementary School, was returning from a field trip to the zoo. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), it was traveling west on Highway 21 when a cement pump truck going east swerved into its lane in Bastrop County, about 50 miles east of Austin.
“The district hopes that the DPS accident reconstruction investigation will be able to provide more information about whether a seatbelt may have made a difference for the student who died in the accident, but at this time we just don’t know that answer,” the district said.
Officials also revealed that approximately 40 of the school district’s 200 buses are older than 2017 and are not equipped with seatbelts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires three-point seat belts on school buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds. But the seat belt decision for larger buses is left up to individual states. Only Texas, California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, and New York have required school bus seat belts. Some of those states, including Texas, only require them on newer buses.
Friday’s deadly collision killed two people, including pre-K student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. His teacher described the five-year-old boy as a child who loved dinosaurs and was filled with a lot of happiness.
“[Ulises] liked to tell stories and shared many with his friends and family. Above all – he was a loving child,” his teacher wrote in a statement.
A man who was riding in a vehicle behind the school bus also died. A total of 51 people were injured.
An investigation into the crash is still ongoing. It is unclear what caused the driver of the cement truck to swerve into oncoming traffic. Authorities said the driver is cooperating with the investigation. It is unclear if any charges will be filed.
The topic of seatbelts will be discussed during an upcoming public meeting held by the district’s Facilities and Bond Oversight Committee. The panel will consider “potentially accelerating the normal Hays CISD bus replacement cycle so that all buses have seatbelts as soon as possible,” district officials stated.
“A precious young boy was lost, and there are no words that will ever express the sorrow behind this, or for the death of a person who was driving a car that was on the road behind the bus,” according to a Tom Green Go Fund Me page. The fundraiser has raised more than $76,000 as of Monday afternoon.
