Texas elementary school students return to class amid questions over bus crash liability

BUDA, Texas (KEYE) — Students were back in class on Tuesday at Tom Green Elementary School in Buda, Texas, as questions are being raised about fault and liability in the recent fatal bus crash.

Counseling services are available for students who need help coping with Friday's crash that killed 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace.

According to a preliminary investigation, 44 students and 11 adults on the school bus were returning from a field trip at the zoo in Bastrop when a concrete truck heading the opposite direction veered into the wrong lane and struck the bus, which rolled over.

Wallace was driving a car behind the school bus and crashed into it during the rollover. Questions are now being raised about fault and liability.

Hays CISD Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright is calling the school bus driver a hero. The bus driver is recovering from crash injuries at home. Wright said her actions, where she veered to the right to avoid a direct head-on crash, “saved lives.”

The concrete truck driver was definitely at fault, there are no ifs, and, or buts about that, and that will come out soon," Wright told KEYE in an interview on Monday.

No charges have been filed, and accident reconstruction experts with the Texas Department of Public Safety are now figuring out exactly what happened and when.

Wright said liability should focus more on the driver of the truck rather than the lack of seatbelts on the school bus. The Hays CISD bus involved in the crash did not have seatbelts because it is a 2011 model. The district started buying buses with seatbelts in 2017 when state law required it.

“For everybody to try to put blame on this one issue, when they should be putting it on the concrete truck, kind of is baffling to me,” said Wright.

On Tuesday, KEYE talked to Austin attorney Todd Kelly about crashes similar to this one. While he does not know specifics about Friday’s collision, he said there are some general questions that need to be answered.

Did the driver fall asleep because he was too tired?" Kelly said. "Was the driver distracted, which we see a lot in cases like this, where the driver is distracted by a cell phone or something else going on in the cab. Did something happen with the tires? We do not know any of the answers to those questions, yet."

No official determination of liability has been made for the school bus crash. For now, the focus at Tom Green Elementary is on helping the students heal.

A memorial near the entrance to the school is full of green balloons and dinosaurs. Montoya loved dinosaurs, the color green, his family and school.