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The man accused of killing at least eight people in a bus crash on a
Florida highway told investigators he smoked marijuana oil the night
before and was in another accident three days earlier, according to an
arrest report. Bryan Maclean Howard has been charged with eight counts of driving under the influence manslaughter after authorities say his pickup
truck hit a bus and sent it off the road early Tuesday morning.

The former school bus and the truck were going in opposite directions when
the truck moved toward the center line, the highway patrol said. About 40
other people were injured when the bus overturned and struck two fences on
the outskirts of the central Florida city of Dunnellon, according to the highway patrol. Some victims suffered serious injuries, and several were
listed in critical condition at a hospital Tuesday.

According to an arrest report from the Florida Highway Patrol, Howard told
an investigator he was hanging out with a friend who had a medical
marijuana card Monday night and smoked marijuana oil with him. Before
Howard went to bed, he said he also took some prescription medications.

On Tuesday, Howard left his parents' house at around 6:30 a.m. to drive to
a methadone clinic in Ocala, Florida, for treatment of a chipped vertebrae
in his back, according to the arrest report.

Howard said he was driving carefully because he crashed his mother's car
into a tree three days earlier while trying to avoid an animal that ran in front of him, according to the report.

Howard said he didn't remember how Tuesday's crash happened, according to
the report. He said the weather was normal and dry. Howard told
investigators he didn't pass any vehicles or was cut off by another
vehicle, but a witness told the highway patrol that she saw Howard's truck "failing to maintain its lane of travel" earlier that morning, according
to the report.

Howard's eyes were bloodshot and watery during the interview with the
highway patrol and his speech was thick and slurred, according to the
report. After Howard was arrested Tuesday afternoon, a breath test found
he had a blood alcohol level of 0.000%.

During a virtual court appearance Wednesday morning, Howard told Marion
County Judge LeAnn Mackey-Barnes he only has $700 and requested a public defender. Mackey-Barnes approved his request and ordered that he be held without bond.

According to online court records, Howard filed a written plea of not
guilty to the DUI manslaughter charges after his court appearance. His
next court appearance is scheduled for June.

The bus was taking about 53 farmworkers to a watermelon field about 80 northwest of Orlando.

Six of the deceased victims range in age from 20 to 46, according to the
arrest report. They were identified as Jose Heriberto Fraga Acosta, 27;
Isaias Miranda Pascal, 21; Manuel Perez Rios, 46; Cristian Salazar
Villeda, 24; Alfredo Tovar Sanchez, 20; and Evarado Ventura Hernandez, 30.
Two other deceased victims were identified as Hispanic males.

"It was an act of reckless irresponsibility," the Farmworker Association
of Florida's Ernesto Ruiz, who has been in contact with some of the
victims' families, told CBS News. "It makes it just all the more painful
how stupid and how easily it could have been avoided."

Government officials said some of the farmworkers were Mexican migrants
with H-2A visas, which allow foreign nationals to come into the U.S.
legally to temporarily fill agricultural jobs.

In 2022, the latest year with data available, vehicle crashes were the
leading cause of job-related deaths among agricultural workers, accounting
for 66 of 146 fatalities, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-bus-crash-bryan-maclean-howard- marijuana-oil-arrest-report/

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