Driver arrested in connection with VIA bus stop crash that critically injured 4

Jose Alberto Garcia: 'I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident.'

SAN ANTONIO – A 38-year-old man was arrested Thursday in connection with a crash at a VIA bus stop that critically injured four people, including a pregnant woman, police officials said.

"I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident," Jose Alberto Garcia said as police officers escorted him to a police cruiser. 

Garcia was charged with four counts of aggravated assault-serious bodily injury.

San Antonio police spokeswoman Jennifer Rodriguez said evidence indicated that Garcia was driving 60 mph in a 40 mph speed zone on Aug. 28 when he veered into the oncoming traffic lane and crashed into the bus stop at the intersection of Culebra Road and Zarzamora Street.

Garcia was not believed to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time, Rodriguez said.

The pregnant woman, Stephanie Johnson Athey, was critically injured and was taken to University Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency cesarean-section that they described as "a true miracle."

Athey is out of the hospital, but her baby is still hospitalized.


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David Ibañez has been managing editor of KSAT.com since the website's launch in October 2000.