MARION COUNTY, Fla. – More details emerge in a deadly Marion County bus crash earlier this week as the local medical examiner’s office confirms the identities of the eight people whom the wreck killed.
The crash occurred Tuesday on State Road 40, west of SW 148th Court, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Bryan Maclean Howard, 41, of Ocala, was driving a Ford Ranger that veered toward the center of S.R. 40 and sideswiped an oncoming bus carrying 53 migrant farmworkers that morning, FHP said.
The bus left the roadway, striking two fences and a tree while overturning in a crash that killed eight of the people on board and sent 40 others to the hospital, troopers said. Records show Howard faces eight counts of DUI manslaughter.
The Marion County Medical Examiner’s Office has since said the following eight people died in the bus crash:
- Isaias Miranda Pascual, 21
- Oscar Temoxtle Temoxtle, 31
- Alfredo Tovar-Sanchez, 20
- Manuel Perez Rios, 46
- Jose Fraga Acosta, 27
- Santiago Benito De Jesus, 24
- Cristian Salazar-Villada, 24
- Everado Ventura Hernandez, 30
According to Howard’s arrest report, he told troopers that he was hanging out with a friend the previous night and smoking marijuana oil before taking his own prescribed medications — Klonopin, Lyrica and clonidine — and getting around five hours of sleep. Despite two breath samples registering a 0.00 BAC at the hospital some eight hours after the wreck, he was arrested and accused of DUI manslaughter after failing several field sobriety tests there, the report states.
Howard was appointed a public defender at his first appearance in court Wednesday morning, where the state listed his prior offenses and asked he be held without bond. The judge agreed, ordering Howard to remain in jail on no bond. His arraignment has been scheduled for the morning of June 18.
Further charges are pending further investigation, according to the arrest report.
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Orlando, Mexican Consul Juan Sabines confirmed everyone injured in the crash was an H-2A visa holder, a visa that allows workers from Mexico to travel to the U.S. and work in agriculture.
“This is proof the reason is not the immigrant situation. It’s the alcohol and drugs and drivers,” Sabines said “...Never, please, drive with one drop of alcohol, alcohol or drugs. Never. Because the result is this. Eight lives are broken, eight families are broken.”
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