Boy dies in bus, cement truck collision
BASTROP, Texas — A cement truck veered into a school bus carrying more than 40 pre-kindergarten students returning from a field trip to a Texas zoo Friday, killing a boy on the bus and a man in another vehicle, authorities said.
Officials said the bus rolled over on the highway in the rural outskirts of Austin, where the heavy presence of emergency vehicles shut down traffic for hours.
Four people in critical condition were airlifted from the crash site. Six others with potentially serious injuries were transported by ambulance, said Kevin Parker, division chief of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
An ambulance bus transported about 10 other patients with minor injuries to a children’s hospital, Parker said. Passengers on the bus included 44 students and 11 adults, according to the Hays Consolidated Independent School District.
The child who died “was a precious young boy” who was a pre-K student at Tom Green Elementary School in Buda, according to Eric Wright, school district superintendent. The child’s name was not released.
Wright said that in addition to the two people who died, 51 others were injured, including the bus driver.
The bus was struck about 2 p.m. when the concrete truck, which was traveling in the opposite direction, veered into the bus’s lane, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Deon Cockrell said. He added that authorities told him initial information indicated that the truck hit the bus head-on, causing it to roll over.
The man who was killed was in a vehicle that either ran into the back of the bus or maybe part of the concrete truck, Cockrell said.
There was one person in the truck and one man in the other vehicle. Cockrell didn’t know how fast the vehicles were going. He said the truck driver was cooperating with authorities.
Parents of the students on the bus were notified of the crash and all the children were reunited with their families by the evening, Wright said.