The driver of a truck that crashed into a bus carrying farm workers, killing eight people, was in another accident just three days earlier, a Florida judge said Wednesday.
Bryan Maclean Howard, 40, was ordered held without bail just over 24 hours after the crash that left him facing eight charges of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter.
In sending Howard to jail until at least his next court appearance on June 18, Marion County Judge LeAnn Mackey-Barnes noted that the suspect was in “a car accident at least three days prior to the accident.”
“Given his driving history and prior to leaving the scene of the accident,” Mackey-Barnes said he had no choice but to take Howard into custody.
In an arrest report obtained by NBC News affiliate WESH 2 in Orlando, officers said Howard told them after Tuesday’s crash that he was “driving very carefully” because he had been in an accident three days earlier. In that crash, cops say he said he “wrapped his mother’s car around a tree.”
Along with the deaths on Tuesday, another 40 people were hospitalized after the early morning crash in Marion County, about 80 miles north of Orlando.
During Wednesday’s brief hearing, Howard wore a prison gown with a bandage wrapped around his head. He held her shoulders or arms during Wednesday’s proceedings.
Mackey-Barnes granted Howard’s request for a public defender, telling the judge he makes $1,200 a month doing infrequent construction work and has only $100 in the bank.
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