The families of Ryan Wallace and Ulises Rodriguez Montoya filed separate wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the crash caused by a concrete truck driver.  The respective families of a man and a boy killed in a school bus crash in Bastrop County last month filed separate wrongful death lawsuits against the truck driver of a concrete truck company, as well as the company and its owner. view article

The Hays CISD’s Board of Trustees has created a plan to ensure all school buses are equipped with seat belts following a fatal Hays CISD bus crash last month. A Tom Green Elementary School bus was returning pre-K students from a field trip to a zoo in Bastrop County when a concrete truck hit the front of the bus, resulting in two deaths.  Hays CISD began buying school buses with seat belts after a state law passed in 2017 requiring them in new buses, but the bus involved in the incident was an older model and didn’t have seat belts.  The district plans to have 100% of its bus fleet equipped with seat belts as soon as possible, according to a plan it published on its website Friday. But the turnaround time for school bus purchases is about a year long. This means it could be a while before Hays CISD meets its goal. view article

Tesla reportedly halted deliveries on its futuristic-looking Cybertruck that’s produced out of the EV-maker’s factory in Austin.  Automotive website Carbuzz first reported on the temporary delivery break, after members of an online forum for Cybertruck owners noted that their deliveries got delayed. The culprit, buyers said, has to do with the accelerator pedal.  Automotive website Carbuzz first reported on the temporary delivery break, after members of an online forum for Cybertruck owners noted that their deliveries got delayed. The culprit, buyers said, has to do with the accelerator pedal. Tesla hasn’t confirmed or shared why deliveries have stopped, but hundreds of the trucks were lined up at Giga Texas over the weekend, YouTuber Brad Sloan noted. Tesla hasn’t confirmed or shared why deliveries have stopped, but hundreds of the trucks were lined up at Giga Texas over the weekend, YouTuber Brad Sloan noted.  view article

On Saturday afternoon, a car collided with a parked Fort Stockton ISD bus that was on the shoulder of the I-20 service road, according to Fort Stockton ISD. Nobody was injured in the crash, according to a Facebook post. On Saturday evening, Fort Stockton ISD released the following statement: view article

BASTROP COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it has opened an incident investigation Monday into the March 22 Hays CISD school bus crash where two people were killed and several others were injured. Hays CISD releases video from deadly bus crash The investigation would assist the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is the lead agency for the crash. “This is different from a full investigation—we will not be sending a team or issuing any reports, findings or conclusions. We will be gathering information from the Texas Department of Public Safety and other local authorities which could be referenced in other school bus crash investigations we are currently conducting,” an NTSB spokesperson said. view article

The driver of a concrete truck that drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with a Hays ISD school bus last Friday has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to Bastrop County criminal records. The charge is a state jail felony, the least severe of all felonies, punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. view article

Hays Independent School District has released two videos from cameras on a school bus involved in Friday’s deadly crash with a concrete truck. One video shows the front of the bus as it’s driving in western Bastrop County, bringing pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary School and 11 adults home from a field trip to the Bastrop Zoo. The other video is from a camera on the side of the bus. view article

A cement truck veered into a school bus carrying more than 40 pre-K students — including one from Seguin ISD — returning from a field trip to a Texas zoo Friday, killing a boy on the bus and a man in another vehicle, authorities said. Seguin ISD Superintendent Veronica Vijil on Monday said that one of her district’s students was on the bus. She provided few additional details but said the student was alive and not in the hospital as of Monday afternoon. view article

Kilgore ISD received $25,000 from Claycomb Associate Architects on Monday that will go towards purchasing bus tracking software. The donation will allow the district to implement state-of-the-art bus tracking technology with the goal to increase communication between the district, parents, and students. view article

The Fort Worth school district is buying 40 new school buses as it phases out older vehicles in its fleet, but the school board is holding off on preparations to build a new transportation facility for operations and vehicle maintenance. The board on Tuesday night voted 7-2, with trustees Kevin Lynch and Michael Ryan in opposition, to spend $6.6 million for the buses that will replace the oldest ones in the district’s fleet that require costly and frequent maintenance. view article

At least two people, including a child, died Friday afternoon after a Hays school district bus with 44 pre-K students and 11 adults rolled over in western Bastrop County off Texas 21. The Tom Green Elementary School students were returning from a field trip to a Bastrop County zoo, according to a statement from the Hays Consolidated Independent School District. The crash occurred at 2751 W. Texas 21 near the intersection at Caldwell Road, EMS said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. view article

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Highway 21 runs from San Marcos to the Texas-Louisiana border near San Augustine. But it’s the stretch of road from Hays County to Bryan-College Station that has earned a bad reputation as one of the most dangerous highways in Central Texas.  In some places, the highway is narrow, with no shoulders, lacking turning lanes where some are needed. Wrecks occur frequently – often the result of drivers not paying attention.  It was along Highway 21 in Bastrop County in 2019 that four children died – three of them brother and sisters – in a crash that left a woman critically injured. Their car had stopped on the highway to make a left turn and was rear ended by a pick-up truck.  That tragedy was compounded by the fact that there once was a turning lane where the wreck happened, but it had been removed, according to some people who live in the area. view article

The Hays school district has announced the 5-year-old child killed in a Friday afternoon bus crash is Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a pre-K student at Tom Green Elementary School.  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.”  [Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, 5, was killed in a school bus crash March 22, 2024, while traveling home from a field trip to the zoo in Bastrop County.]  Ulises was one of two people killed in the crash involving a Hays school bus, a concrete truck and another car. view article

Fairfield ISD Superintendent Joe Craig said everyone is safe and there are only minor injuries following a school bus crash on FM-488. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers responded to a crash on FM-488 near CR 232, northeast of Fairfield, at about 7 a.m. on Monday, March 25. Troopers reported the school bus left the roadway and struck a utility pole. The school district believes the inclement weather “likely contributed to the accident.” view article

Central Texas school districts are encouraging its students and staff to wear green on Monday, March 25, in support of Tom Green Elementary School. The following school districts are asking their communities to wear green on Monday: view article

An Alief Independent School District school bus was involved in a crash that left the driver of another vehicle dead Saturday in southwest Houston, according to the Houston Police Department. The crash happened around 6:10 p.m. in the 6500 block of Southwest Freeway, Houston police spokesman John Cannon said. Onboard the Alief ISD bus were 22 teenagers and the driver, none of whom were injured, he said. view article

The Houston Police Department is investigating a deadly crash involving an Alief ISD school bus and another vehicle in southwest Houston on Saturday. Police say the accident happened at about 4:25 p.m. along Highway 59 at Fountainview, where the driver of a Volkswagen collided with an Alief ISD school bus. An Alief ISD spokesperson told ABC13 that the students on the bus were coming back from an out of city event. view article

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals moved to place the law on hold again yesterday. As the battle over Texas’ new border security law continues to wage on in the courts, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Chris Salcedo he “still feel[s] very good” about the law. After the U.S. Supreme Court moved to allow the law to go into effect on Tuesday afternoon, mere hours later in the evening, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put the law on hold yet again. Whatever the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decides, Patrick said he expects the case to land back in the Supreme Court. He called the 6-3 SCOTUS vote Tuesday allowing the law to go into effect “a very positive development” in the case, hinting that it may provide insight into how the court will rule later. view article

A 32-year-old woman is under arrest after crashing into an Edinburg CISD school bus Saturday evening while allegedly driving drunk, according to a news release.  Edinburg police responded to the 3600 block of S. Sugar Road at approximately 6:50 p.m. that day regarding a three-vehicle crash.  “The incident included an Edinburg CISD school district bus with four students, a sponsor, and a driver on board,” the release stated.  There were no major injuries. view article

The Boerne Independent School District has named Melanie Lee as its new director of transportation. Lee’s appointment was approved by the BISD board of trustees at their Feb. 26 meeting. view article

Early Monday morning, Karnack ISD celebrated the arrival of three new international-style buses as part of their recently approved transportation bond in the amount of $575,000. The buses arrived at KISD at 8:30 a.m. and were met with cheers and signs thanking the community for approving the bond which led to their purchase. The buses included two international-style 71 passenger buses for the price of $132,650 and one international-style 54 passenger bus with lift accessibility for the price of $137,650. view article

Hundreds of Texas public school districts will likely qualify for state funding as they switch to electric buses and other clean forms of transportation. Districts can request reimbursement as they upgrade or replace diesel-powered buses. Roughly $13.5 million is available through the grant program, which is administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The details Everyone benefits when schools transition to cleaner transportation, TCEQ Program Specialist Nate Hickman said. “The new school buses certainly have little to zero exhaust ... so the air in and around the school buses are cleaner,” Hickman said. “That’s great for the children, the bus drivers, teachers at the school and the administration, but also the immediate communities [that] buses drive in and around.” view article

One student sustained minor injuries during an accident involving a La Joya Independent School District school bus, the district announced. In a letter sent to parents, the district stated that the accident occurred at 4:20 p.m. Thursday while a school bus was transporting students home near 5 Mile Line and La Homa Road. view article

The February 7th special meeting of the College Station ISD school board, after the decision was made to call a bond election for this May, included a one hour update about the district’s transportation department. Director Hector Silva went through a 46 page report that covered: view article

While some East Texas school districts report more students getting to school in a private vehicle than opt to ride the bus, others report a near 50/50 split between car-riders and bus-riders, similar statistics to pre-pandemic ridership numbers. “I think most of our districts in East Texas are smaller to mid-size districts – because of the fact that we’re still pretty rural compared to a lot of your inner-city districts, and there are not adequate sidewalks and various ways,” said Kilgore ISD Transportation Director Brady Wheeler. “Kids have to come from rural areas to come to school. They tend to typically rely on your school district to provide the transportation, just like they always have.” view article

Danny Senkow said a man dragged him off a bus filled with children in a shocking and painful attack. view article

KILGORE – Kilgore ISD announced on Thursday that they were awarded a $1.5 million grant to replace older diesel buses with new electric buses. According to our news partner KETK, Kilgore ISD was awarded the grant by the Environmental Protection Agency as a part of their Clean School Bus Program. The grant allowed for up to $375,000 per bus for replacement and $20,000 per bus for charging infrastructure. The new electric busses have a range of 120 miles between charging and will be able to reliably provide transportation throughout the district. view article

Kilgore ISD is addressing a meme circulating on Facebook that features disinformation regarding the recent acquisition of electric school buses. The district announced Thursday they are adding electric school buses to their fleet. Thanks to a $1,580,000 grant through the EPA's Clean Bus Program, the district will be able to purchase four EV buses and the necessary charging equipment. view article

On a bright, sunny Monday, a fleet of bright yellow school buses glints in the Austin school district's Southeast Bus Terminal at 7200 Bluff Springs Road. Kris Hafezizadeh, the schools' executive director of transportation and vehicle services, walked aboard one of the district's newest buses as it clicked to life, with almost no detectable sound. In about 10 years, Hafezizadeh hopes Austin residents will no longer have to hear the familiar school bus rumble, nor see the black smoke or smell the diesel fumes that are ever-present with traditional buses. view article

School buses take roughly 28% of Texas students to and from school every day. Kilgore ISD received a $1.5 million grant from EPA’S clean bus program to replace aging buses in their fleet with four electric buses. Brady Wheeler, the director of transportation for the district says this change helps lower diesel emissions. “The federal EPA and even the TCEQ, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, they realized school districts do use a lot of diesel fuel and do drive vehicles that traditionally less clean burning, so they wanted to provide that funding to districts to be able to receive cleaner, more efficient vehicles,” Wheeler said. view article

Denison ISD is investigating after an incident where a student was left on a school bus Wednesday. The district said the child fell asleep during morning drop off, and they said they will take appropriate action after their investigation into the incident. view article

A 9-year-old girl was killed Wednesday afternoon in a multi-vehicle car crash involving a Princeton ISD school bus, the Texas Department of Public Safety says. In an updated crash report, the DPS confirmed Thursday that four vehicles were involved in Wednesday's crash including the school bus. The other three vehicles were a Jeep Wrangler, a Chevy Express 3500 commercial truck and a Nissan Versa. view article

FORT WORTH, Texas - Surveillance video is shedding more light into a crash between a school bus and a motorcycle that killed the motorcyclist.  This happened Tuesday morning along Beach Street in Fort Worth.  The All New Mind Blowing Chevy Silverado Is Finally Here (Take a Look)  Surveillance footage shows the bus making a left turn, then it shows the motorcycle, driven by 36-year-old Travis Waters, crashing into the bus.  Fort Worth police said they are investigating the cause of the crash and all of the possible factors. view article

DENISON, Texas (KTEN) — A Denison elementary student was left on her school bus for several hours on Wednesday morning. The Denison Independent School District said the four-year-old fell asleep on the bus. She was not found until Lamar Elementary called the student's mother, Leslie Waldrop, to alert her that her daughter never arrived. Waldrop put out a Facebook post expressing her disappointment in the school district. view article

Virginia Parker was recognized as District Bus Driver of the Month by the Terrell ISD board of trustees at their Jan. 18 board meeting, according to a press release by GoldStar Transit. “This award for Virginia is so well-deserved," said Freddie Pierce, GoldStar Transit Terminal Manager for Terrell. “Often, the hard work of our bus drivers can go overlooked, but Terrell ISD’s Board took the time to acknowledge the effort Virginia is putting into her job each day and the important role bus drivers play in the overall student experience.” view article