Texas school bus crash: Hays CISD discusses putting seat belts on all school buses

Texas school bus crash: Seat belts on buses

Hays CISD will hold a special board meeting on Monday to discuss a plan to put seat belts on all the district's school buses. It comes just weeks after a school bus crash killed two, including a preschooler.

HAYS COUNTY, Texas - Last month, 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya never got to return home after a field trip to the zoo.

His Hays CISD school bus, without seat belts, was hit by a concrete pumper truck.

The crash killed Montoya and a driver in another vehicle, 33-year-old Ryan Wallace.

The driver of that concrete truck was charged with criminally negligent homicide.

"We haven't gotten the investigation report yet from DPS, so we will wait on that to see if seat belts would have made a difference, but we are planning on accelerating our timeline to make sure that all of our buses in the future will have seatbelts," said Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright.

Hays CISD superintendent speaks on crash

Hays CISD released the name of the driver killed in the deadly crash on Friday, March 22. All students were also released from the hospital, but one teacher remains hospitalized.

When FOX 7 Austin sat down with Wright just after the crash, seat belts were at the top of his agenda.

"We have 21 new buses coming in 3 weeks, so all of our route buses will be equipped in 3 weeks with seat belts," said Wright.

That's the first part of the district's plan to fully equip all school buses with seat belts.

It also has eight 2023 and seven 2024 bus orders processing.

The district is looking at retrofitting about a dozen of its 2016 and 2017 buses with seat belts, which barely missed the state cutoff requiring seat belts on buses made after 2017. That alone could cost $36,000 per bus. The district said it has nine of these buses in total.

Using a 2023 bond, it also wants to purchase 21 new 2025 model buses and accelerate that order.

TEXAS SCHOOL BUS CRASH COVERAGE

"Whether there's civil liability or not, that particular claim, it's something we should all look at and have conversations about within our school district to make sure that we have seat belts on school buses," said Trey Gober, a personal injury attorney representing one of the families involved in the crash.

The rest will be up to the voters.

Hays CISD could hold a bond election in May 2025 to ask for $3.6 million for 22 new buses.

The board meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Monday in the Kunkel room at the historic Buda School Upper Campus, 300 San Marcos Street, Buda, TX 78610. It'll start with a closed session before board members go in front of the public.