Officials identify man, 5-year-old child killed in Hays school bus crash

The Hays school community is mourning the loss of two people, including a prekindergarten student, after a crash involving a school bus Friday afternoon.

The two victims of Friday's crash in Bastrop County were identified as 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a pre-K student at Tom Green Elementary School, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, confirmed separately by the Hays school district and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Ulises loved the color green, his family, school and dinosaurs, the district said in a statement.

“He could almost completely spell the word dinosaur, which demonstrates how smart he was,” said Naira (Dina) Solís Shears, his pre-K bilingual teacher. “He always had a dinosaur drawn on all of the assignments he turned in.”

The crash — involving a Hays school bus, a concrete truck and another car — happened at 2751 W. Texas 21 near Caldwell Road about 2 p.m. Friday, DPS officials said.

The 44 students and 11 adults on the bus were heading west, coming back from a field trip at the zoo in Bastrop, when a concrete truck heading east veered into the wrong lane and struck the bus, which rolled over, officials said.

Several children flew out of the bus, officials said.

Wallace, a Bastrop resident, was driving a Dodge Charger behind the bus and struck the back of the vehicle. He wasn’t part of the school group.

Wallace was a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas, university spokesman Mike Rosen confirmed to the American-Statesman.

As of Monday, it was still unclear what caused the concrete truck to veer out of its lane. Officials have not released the name of the person who drove the concrete truck or clarified whether they plan to file charges.

At least 20 people were taken to the hospital after the crash, with injuries ranging from minor to critical, the American-Statesman previously reported. By Monday evening, all of the children were released from the hospital and one adult remained, Hays district spokesman Tim Savoy said in a statement.

The staff member who is still hospitalized is an early childhood education teacher, Savoy said, and her recovery will take time because of the nature of her injuries.

The district canceled classes Monday at Tom Green Elementary, but the campus remained open for students and staff members who wanted counseling services.

Community grief

On Monday afternoon, teachers and community members wearing green brought balloons and flowers to lay under the Tom Green school sign. “Our hearts are with our Tom Green families,” the sign said.

Pinwheels spun and a collection of prayer candles and plastic dinosaur toys grew. A child-drawn picture of smiling dinosaurs and palm trees with Ulises’ name flapped in the wind.

Tiffany Reyna and her children came to the school with sidewalk chalk. Reyna, whose children go to Sunfield Elementary School in the Hays district, was coming with other parents who planned to write encouraging messages on the sidewalk in chalk for Tom Green students who return to class Tuesday.

"It's just too close to home," Reyna said. "It could happen to anybody any day."

Cynthia Luna and her son lay flowers under the sign.

Luna teaches bilingual pre-K at Hemphill Elementary School in the Hays district.

“It was very quiet in our school,” Luna said.

The school has a field trip for pre-K students within the next month, and some parents said Monday that they didn’t want to send their child anymore, she said. Others asked if they could drive their child in their own car, she said.

“You just never know,” Luna said. “You might leave with your son this morning, and then you never know if you’re going to get a phone call. He just might not come back home.”

The experience turned a fun zoo field trip into a bad memory for the children, Superintendent Eric Wright said.

"Everybody's still grieving," Wright said. "I think half of us are still in shock."

The 560-student elementary school serves pre-K through fifth grade students and the district's deaf education program, Wright said.

Ulises' family is mourning the loss of the child, Wright said.

"He was such a beautiful child," Wright said. "They're obviously just heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief. They are surrounded with family."

Ulises was filled with happiness and often shared that joy with others, Solís Shears said.

“He liked to tell stories and shared many with his friends and family,” Solís Shears said. “Above all — he was a loving child.”

Former Tom Green fourth grade teacher Molly Andrews is part of a community leadership team supporting the campus. She heard reports that after the wreck, teachers and other adults did everything they could to help and care for the students.

"The culture is strong," Andrews said. "It really feels like you're a part of a family."

To the staff at Tom Green, students always come first, she said.

"It's always about how we can better help students," Andrews said. "The teachers' hearts are there in everything that they do. They put so much of their time and energy into the students."

Many of the students were deeply affected by the crash, she said.

"It's gut-wrenching to read what their experience was," Andrews said.

Andrews started a GoFundMe account to raise money for funeral expenses, hospital bills and other needs the families have. As of Monday afternoon, the fundraiser had collected more than $73,800.

Ulises' family also set up a GoFundMe page for help with funeral expenses. The family was grateful for the outpouring of support from the community, Savoy said.

Bus involved in the crash did not have seat belts

The bus involved in the crash had no seat belts because it was a 2011 model, Savoy said, adding that school buses made since 2017 do have seat belts. In a statement Saturday, the Hays district said an ongoing DPS investigation might show whether seat belts would have "made a difference for the student who died."

The bus involved in the crash Friday was one of 15 without seat belts in daily use for the district and was also set to be replaced within weeks, Savoy said Monday.

The district had just received a shipment of 21 new buses with seat belts that were meant to replace the 15 older buses and add to the district's backup fleet, he said.

Staffers are outfitting those 21 buses with cameras and other equipment, and the buses had been scheduled to deploy for students' routes within two or three weeks, Savoy said.

The district also has about 87 buses in a backup fleet it uses for extra needs.

The bus the students rode Friday was a normal daily route bus. It's typical for the district to use a daily route bus for field trips if it doesn't disrupt drop-off and pickup schedules, Savoy said.

District officials would like to purchase an additional 40 buses with seat belts for its backup fleet, and will probably propose the cost as part of a future bond, Savoy said.

A new school bus costs about $160,000, he said.

Staff writer Bianca Moreno-Paz contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Officials name 5-year-old child, man killed in Hays school bus crash