The Hays school board met to discuss their new seat belt plan on April 15 and passed it unanimously in response to the Tom Green bus crash that resulted in the death of 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace on Mar. 22. With the seat belt plan passed, their plan is to install seatbelts in buses without seat belts and buy new buses with seat belts.

“I was heartbroken for that poor little boy and angry that the driver of the concrete truck was under the influence of drugs,” junior Mariah Dominguez said. “But I don’t think the incident could have been prevented. It wasn’t the bus driver’s fault the concrete truck ran into her.”

Dominguez was a rider of the #1106 bus that was involved in the bus crash and was shocked when she heard that it was her bus and bus driver involved in the accident.

“As someone who came from Tom Green Elementary and had family members there, it was upsetting news,” sophomore Malia Savala said. “Because what if it was me or someone I love in the accident. I would be devastated.”

There are two types of buses in the Hays fleet. Support buses are sometimes used by coaches and are also kept on standby in case a regular route bus is out for maintenance. Route buses are used for transportation for students to get to and from school each day. They are also always the first option for field trips and other student transportation needs.

“I had felt very sad and nervous for all the families and students of Tom Green Elementary,” freshman Samara Sweis said.

Sweis was also a morning and afternoon rider of the #1106 bus that crashed.

“When I had found out that our bus was the one involved in the wreck I was very worried,” Samara said. “Because what if that was us?”

Hays’ approach to the seat belt problem is to install certain models with seat belts. The district has nine 2017 models and four 2016 models that can be retrofitted for $36,000 each. It is financially impractical to install seatbelts in any bus model that is 2011 and older. They also plan to purchase nine 2025 bus models with the 1.5 million dollars received from the 2023 Hays CISD bond.

“I feel like students should wear seat belts,” Sweis said. “Especially young children.”

Hays’ primary objective is to have a full fleet of buses with seat belts at the soonest possible date. The district is in the final phase of receiving 21 buses and by Apr. 30, all of their route buses will have seat belts. They are also in the middle stages of receiving eight 2023 bus models and seven 2024 bus models that are all for regular education.

“I think adding seat belts to the buses is a great idea,” Dominguez said. 

Hays’ final part of the plan is to put together a bond that people would vote for the district to gain the net for an additional 16 regular education buses which would increase the total support bus fleet to 80 this is a decrease from 107. Around the same time of the decrease of the support bus fleet, they also plan to have an increase of 109 route buses to 115.

“As an elementary school full of little kids, they should change the buses to new buses with seat belts and get them checked every month to ensure they are safe,” Samara said.