BASTROP COUNTY, Texas — It’s been just a few days since the deadly school bus crash in Bastrop County, but the glass and metal scattered along the side of State Highway 21 is still a tragic reminder of what happened.
One pre-K student from Tom Green Elementary School and one man were killed when a concrete pumper truck traveling eastbound hit the Hays CISD school bus transporting students from a field trip to the Bastrop Zoo, causing it to roll over.
A mother who was on the field trip with her 4-year-old son spoke to KVUE. She drove separately and wasn't on the bus when the accident happened.
“We got to the field trip, all the kids had a freakin’ awesome time,” she said. “They’re full of, you know, life and [they're] happy.”
But she said things took a drastic turn when she didn’t receive the normal text that would notify her when her son’s bus made it back to the school.
Once she saw reports that a bus traveling westbound on SH 21 had been struck and rolled over, her heart immediately sunk.
“I knew it was their bus because it was the way that they were coming back,” she said. “I completely lost it.”
She then got a call from the school that the bus had been in an accident and it needed all the parents to come to the campus. She remembers asking if her son was OK before being told that the school didn’t yet know.
“All I was thinking was just him flying around the bus because the bus didn’t have seat belts,” she said.
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After what she said felt like an eternity of waiting, while other parents were scrolling the news and seeing updates of a child and adult who had died, the parents were finally told where their kids were.
This mother’s son was rescued by a neighbor who lives across the street from the crash site. The man was using every towel and shirt in his house to rescue the kids.
“He’s a hero and selfless,” she said. “Literally took the shirt off his own back to help these children during ... probably the most scary time of their lives.”
Her son is still recovering from a few physical injuries, but she said the mental trauma will last much longer.
“I don’t know what he saw,” she said. “When I got him, he was ... he was not himself.”
She said talking to him after the accident, one thing he told her is that he saw a “dead teacher.” However, no teachers were reported dead – the driver of the car that hit the bus was the only adult pronounced dead. The mother thinks her son could be referring to a teacher who may have been unconscious.
Both of her young children never want to ride a bus again. Her daughter was crying about going on an upcoming field trip.
While she’s grateful her son was able to make it out alive, she said her heart breaks for the mother whose son was killed.
“I just feel horrible that she lost her baby and didn’t get to bring him home,” she said. “I got to bring my son home. It’s a guilt feeling, too.”
On Sunday, she and some other community members set up a roadside memorial to honor the lives lost at the site of the crash.
“We wanted to start something so that these people could be commemorated and just know that people are thinking of them and with them,” Celia Oosterhuis, a community member and teacher at Tom Green Elementary, said.
They also brought a stack of towels and supplies to replace what the neighbor graciously gave while rescuing all of the children.
“As a mother, I would hope so deeply that someone would do that for my child and I would do it for his,” Oosterhuis said.
In addition to the stuffed animals, two angels and candles on the memorial, the neighbor plans to make two wooden crosses to place there.
Along with honoring the lives, these community members hope the memorial will be a sign to people speeding down SH 21.
“I hope people know it's a child, and that's very powerful,” Oosterhuis said.