Hays CISD identifies Pre-K student killed in Friday bus crash

HAYS COUNTY, Texas (Talk1370.com) -- The search for answers continues Monday as Hays CISD officials shared the name of the 5-year old student killed in a deadly bus crash Friday afternoon in Bastrop County.

District officials identified the student as Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a student who "loved his family, dinosaurs, the color green, and going to school" at Tom Green Elementary in Buda.

The bus was carrying 44 students and 11 adults at the time of the crash, who were on their way back from a zoo field trip in Bastrop.

“Ulises was a child who was filled with a lot of happiness and he often shared it with others,” said Naira (Dina) Solís Shears, his pre-K bilingual teacher in a statement shared by the district. “He had a talent for drawing and his favorite thing to draw was dinosaurs. 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.”

Montoya was the only student killed in the crash. The other victim who died in the crash was in a car driving behind the bus. Austin-Travis County EMS, which responded to the scene, said medics checked out a total of 53 patients from the scene.

An investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing, according to Texas DPS. Officials say the concrete truck appeared to veer into the opposite lane, colliding with the bus on State Highway 21 near Caldwell Road.

Classes were canceled at Tom Green on Monday; instead, the district said it would be making counselors available for students and staff from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

According to the district, funeral services for Montoya are still pending. The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses; a separate GoFundMe has been set up for the general Tom Green community to help with victims' medical and other unanticipated expenses.