BASTOP, Texas – A Bastrop County grand jury on Tuesday indicted a cement mixer driver in connection with a crash involving a Hays CISD bus that left two people dead.

Jerry Hernandez, 42, was charged with two counts of manslaughter (a second-degree felony) and two counts of involuntary manslaughter (a felony punishable by prison time).

The accident occurred on March 22 on State Highway 21 in western Bastrop County. According to an arrest affidavit, Hernandez told DPS officers he had smoked marijuana and used cocaine and had only slept for about three hours before the accident.

The affidavit also states that his employer, FJM Concrete, failed to review his drug test report and properly screen it upon hiring him.

Records from the federal Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, which stores data on commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders, showed that Hernandez refused a reasonable suspicion test in September 2020, the affidavit said. The test should have justified his referral to a substance abuse specialist for evaluation, KTBC reported.

“At that time, he should have been relieved of his duties as a security-related worker by the company he was driving for at the time,” investigators said.

In subsequent tests, Hernandez tested positive for marijuana in 2022 and cocaine in 2023, resulting in a suspension of his driver’s license.

However, due to a loophole in the law, Hernandez’s CDL license was still valid in Texas.

“… Pursuant to changes in the Federal Register, state driver licensing authorities are not required to downgrade CDL status until November 18, 2024,” the affidavit states.

FJM Concrete did not verify its CDL status through the Clearinghouse, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that company owner Francisco Martinez “should have been aware of his status through the clearinghouse.” On Monday, Martinez was charged in a separate case for employing an unlicensed driver, KXAN reported.

Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, 5, was a passenger on the bus and died in the accident. A Dodge Charger slammed into the back of the bus, killing UT student Ryan Wallace of Bastrop, according to media reports.

At the time of the accident, there were 44 students and 11 adults on the bus.

According to Eric Wright, superintendent of Hays CISD, a total of 51 people were injured, including the bus driver. According to the Associated Press, four seriously injured people were flown from the scene by helicopter and several others were transported by ambulance. All students have since been released from hospitals. The district said a pre-K teacher suffered the most serious injuries and “it will take some time for him to recover.”

The district called the bus driver a hero.

“We will be forever indebted to her and the other adults on the bus because, even though they were injured, they put the children above themselves and their own well-being. Dr. Wright said today of the bus driver and the other adults, ‘Their actions saved lives,'” the press release said.

The bus did not have seat belts because it was a 2011 model, Tim Savoy, a spokesman for the Hays school district, told the newspaper. New buses have been equipped with seat belts since 2017, he said.