Hays student killed in bus crash loved dinosaurs, drawing, school
A 5-year-old preschool student from Tom Green Elementary was one of two people killed when a cement truck struck a school bus in Bastrop County Friday afternoon.
Ulises Rodriguez Montoya died Friday “as a result of injuries suffered in the tragic field trip school bus accident,” the Hays Consolidated Independent School District said Monday.
Ulises was one of 44 children and 11 adults returning to the elementary school in Buda from a trip to the Bastrop Zoo. The bus was traveling west on Texas 21 near Caldwell Road when the truck, which was driving east, veered out of its lane and hit the bus, knocking it over, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday.
A man driving a Dodge Charger behind the bus also was killed in the accident; DPS has not released his name.
Ulises “loved his family, dinosaurs, the color green and going to school,” the school district said in a statement.
His preschool bilingual teacher, Naira “Dina” Solis Shears, said Ulises “was filled with a lot of happiness and he often shared it with others.”
“He had a talent for drawing and his favorite thing to draw was dinosaurs,” she said. “He could almost completely spell the word dinosaur, which demonstrates how smart he was. He always had a dinosaur drawn on all of the assignments he turned in. He liked to tell stories and shared many with his friends and family. Above all — he was a loving child.”
“He is survived by a loving and supportive family, including his parents and siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and lots of cousins, who will miss him dearly,” the district said.
A Gofundme campaign created to help Ulises' family pay for funeral expenses has raised more than $48,000.
Another campaign, started by a former Tom Green Elementary teacher, has raised more than $71,000. That money will be used “to help students and staff with expenses related to healing, offsetting funeral expenses for the student who passed away, and other unexpected expenses incurred by families affected by the accident,” the school district said.
In a written statement Saturday afternoon, Tom Green Elementary Principal Jennifer Hanna said at least three staff members and two students were still in the hospital at the time, and the district was waiting for updates on nine other students. Two of the employees will have “extensive recoveries ahead,” she said, while the third employee and two students were expected to be released in the near future.
DPS Sgt. Deon Cockrell said Monday that the investigation into the crash is still ongoing, and no additional information was available about what caused the truck driver to veer into the bus.