Screenshot / KVUE, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

On Friday, a truck driver was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide in connection to a March 22 school bus collision in Texas, which killed a man and a five-year-old boy. 

The Associated Press reported that Jerry Hernandez, 42, was arrested without incident at a residence in Bastrop County, according to Sgt. Deon Cockrell of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Hernandez’s bond is set at $500,000, per the Bastrop County Jail, and he does not yet have an attorney. 

Hernandez was reportedly interviewed by Texas police while in hospital last week for injuries relating to the crash, where he reportedly admitted to having smoked marijuana the night before the crash, KVUE reported. He also allegedly told police he had only slept about three hours before consuming cocaine at 1 a.m. on the morning of March 22.

Hernandez refused to provide a blood sample for analysis, according to court documents.

The crash took place around 2 p.m. on March 22, near Texas State Highway 21 and Caldwell Road in Bastrop County, a rural highway outside Austin. The bus was carrying more than 40 pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary School and 11 adults. The group was returning from a field trip to a local zoo.

Two people were killed in the crash. Ryan Wallace, 33, a PhD student at the University of Texas, who was driving in another vehicle that was also hit by the truck after the initial collision, and 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was on the bus.

Four individuals were airlifted from the site in critical condition, and six others with serious injuries were taken to hospitals by ambulance. 

Video released by the Hays Consolidated Independent School District showed other drivers leaving their cars to race toward the bus. 

The crash remains under investigation and authorities have not yet confirmed the speed at which the vehicles were traveling at the time of the collision. The school district said the bus did not have seatbelts, according to the Associated Press.