Hays CISD approves seat belt plan following fatal bus crash

BUDA — The Hays CISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved a seat belt plan at its April 15 meeting, which will equip the district with a fleet of buses fitted with seat belts at the earliest possible date.

On March 22, a Tom Green Elementary School bus was returning from a field trip to the Capital of Texas Zoo, when a concrete truck veered into its lane, crashing into the bus and causing it to roll over. The truck then hit a Hyundai SUV, which was traveling behind the school bus. The collision took the lives of 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a Hays CISD student, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a doctorate candidate at the University of Texas.

Following the accident, the driver of the concrete truck, Jerry Hernandez, admitted to authorities that he smoked marijuana at 10 p.m. the night before the crash, before sleeping three hours and consuming cocaine at approximately 1 a.m. Multiple victims of the accident have since filed lawsuits, citing gross negligence against the driver, as well as the company for which he worked.

“As a board, we want to share our collective thoughts and feelings. March 22 was a tragic and terrible day for Hays CISD,” said Hays CISD Board president Will McManus. “There are things that we can control and things we cannot control, but we have not been surprised by the outpouring of the support from this amazing community and beyond.”

Since the tragedy, many have pondered whether the loss of the young child could have been prevented by the use of seat belts on the bus.

Hays CISD bus driver Niquelle Blakely, or known by her students as Ms. Blue, gave her personal experience with seat belts on the bus during the public comment period at the board meeting. She stated that although the drivers go through many training sessions, there is nothing compared to an accident actually happening in the district.

She noted that with 65 children on the bus, there is no guarantee that they will keep their seat belt on: “You call over the intercom, ‘Alright kids, fasten your seat belts. We’re leaving.’ And you hear various clicks. You're golden, right? Everyone’s safely secured and you're ready to roll. You're driving 40 miles per hour; you look up in your passenger mirror and you watch as one of your kids jumps from one seat across the aisle. But I told them to button up.”

Blakely goes on to describe how difficult it is to maintain control over students when they are constantly telling her she has no authority over them because she is not “their mother.”

“As it stands now, there’s barely any disciplinary actions available for our children who fail to use our current safety measure,” said Blakely. “Write-ups and phone calls have not stopped children refusing [to comply], so what is going to make them wear their seat belts?”

The bus driver, along with other speakers, also stated that each bus is only equipped with one seat belt cutter, which can only cut through approximately four belts before going dull. Without the proper equipment, seat belts could become a hazard.

The bus in question was an older model unequipped with seat belts. Prior to a law passed in Texas in 2017, buses without seat belts were standard. The law now requires that all buses purchased after 2017 be equipped with seat belts. Although the district has been striving to transition its fleet to be fully fitted with the safety precaution, chief communication officer Tim Savoy confirmed that 15 of the 109 route buses have yet to be replaced. All of the special education buses are equipped with seat belts.

According to the school district, route buses are those that transport the students to and from school each day and are the first choice for field trips and other transportation needs, as long as the activities do not interfere with regular route times.

There are, however, 107 additional buses, with 87 lacking seat belts, that are used primarily by athletics or to temporarily replace route buses for maintenance, but the district has been using approximately 40 of the support buses regularly.

“The issue of seat belts on buses had not surfaced [in the district], compared to building security and preventing acts of violence on campus, as one of the top pressing concerns during the district’s continuing safety discussions and improvements,” read the plan. “Bus accidents with injuries are incredibly rare. No student in Texas died in a school bus accident in 2023 and since 2009, the oldest available data according to the Texas Education Agency Bus Accident Reporting System, most years in Texas see no children die in school bus accidents.”

The district is in the process of switching out buses without seat belts for those with them on the fastest timeline possible, but in the meantime, some without seat belts will still need to be used. The goal is to have 115 regular route buses with seat belts, with 80 additional buses with seat belts for support purposes.

The plan notes that new school buses are about $160,000 each.

“It's not the funding that's going to be the issue, it is going to be simply the time and pace for a bus to be built. That's going to be the thing that will slow us down,” said Savoy.

Currently, the district is in the phase of receiving 21 more buses with seat belts, which will complete the number of route buses that need the safety measures, while supplying six more for the support buses. The district is also awaiting an order of eight 2023 model buses and seven 2024 model buses, but has not received a date for delivery. This is because the average wait time is 12 months, due to the lack of bus manufacturers in the United States.

A cheaper alternative to purchasing new buses is retrofitting older models from 2016 and 2017 to add seat belts for $36,000 each. There are 13 buses which fit the criteria for retrofitting that the district will be seeking $468,000 for through either bond interest money or surplus bond funds.

Finally, there are plans to accelerate the purchase of nine 2025 model buses, which voters approved in 2023 for the cost of $1.5 million. Additionally, there will be a proposed item brought before the board in either April or May 2024 to add 21 more buses to this purchase, totaling $4.8 million.

The Facilities and Bond Oversight Committee is also putting items together for a potential bond in May 2025, to add 22 regular education buses to both complete the goal of 80 spare buses with seat belts and an additional six buses to accommodate the expected growth of the district. This would cost at least $3.6 million, according to the plan.

“We’re doing what is required of us and I think at this point, that there's a chance that what is required may not be doing enough. I think there's nothing stopping us from doing more than what is required and that is why we submitted this plan,” stressed Savoy.

The board unanimously voted to implement the plan.

At the April 22 meeting, chief operations officer Max Cleaver brought forward two items for funding the plan. The first was for an approval of $4,742,995 to purchase 30 2025 model buses, while the second focused on retrofitting current vehicles. According to Cleaver, the approval of $397,242 will supply all necessary materials to retrofit the 2016-17 model buses with seat belts, as opposed to purchasing brand new ones. The seat belts will be installed by the Hays CISD Transportation Department, which will hopefully speed up the completion timeline. If purchased this week, there will be an approximate six week delivery date, said Cleaver, giving the district time to have the project completed prior to the upcoming school year. The board approved both items unanimously.

The board of trustees will meet again on Monday, May 13.