BASTROP COUNTY, Texas – A 5-year-old student at Hays Consolidated Independent School District and a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas were identified as the victims in a bus crash that happened on Friday in western Bastrop County.
Authorities said at around 2 p.m. a cement truck veered into the bus carrying 44 pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary and 11 adults. The students were returning from a field trip to the Bastrop Zoo.
The collision caused the bus to roll over on the highway in the rural outskirts of Austin, killing 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. A Dodge Charger then struck the back of the bus, killing UT student Ryan Wallace, of Bastrop, according to media reports.
On Friday, Superintendent Eric Wright said a total of 51 were injured, including the bus driver. As of Monday evening, one teacher remains hospitalized.
In a news release, Ulises’ pre-K bilingual teacher Naira (Dina) Solís Shears said, “Ulises was a child who was filled with a lot of happiness and he often shared it with others.”
“He had a talent for drawing and his favorite thing to draw was dinosaurs. He could almost completely spell the word dinosaur, which demonstrates how smart he was,” Shears said. “He always had a dinosaur drawn on all of the assignments he turned in. He liked to tell stories and shared many with his friends and family. Above all – he was a loving child.”
The release added that his family is grateful for the community’s support. They are asking for privacy at this time.
A memorial service and funeral for Ulises are pending.
Wallace was driving his Dodge Charger behind the bus and was killed when his car struck the back of the vehicle, the district said. He was a Ph.D. student at UT’s School of Journalism and Media, according to the Austin American-Statesman and UT’s website.
He had a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Science degree e in Biotechnology from California State University, San Marcos.
“Though he was not part of the field trip or affiliated with our school district, we want to extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” the district said in a release on Monday evening.
According to the Associated Press, four people in critical condition were airlifted from the crash site and several others were transported by ambulance.
The “hero bus driver” is recovering at home, the district said in the release.
“We will be forever indebted to her, and the other adults on the bus, who, though injured, placed the children above themselves and their own well-being. Dr. Wright said today of the bus driver and the other adults that, ‘their actions saved lives,’” the release states.
The bus didn’t have seatbelts because it was a 2011 model, Tim Savoy, a Hays school district spokesperson, told the newspaper. New buses have been fitted with belts since 2017, he said.
