The driver of a truck that slammed into a bus carrying farmworkers, killing eight people, was in another crash just three days earlier, a Florida judge said Wednesday.
Bryan Maclean Howard, 40, was ordered held without bail a little more than 24 hours after the crash that led to him facing eight counts of driving under the influence-manslaughter.
While 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 an auto accident at least three days prior to this accident.”
“Given your history of driving history and prior for leaving scene of accident,” Mackey-Barnes said she had no choice but to remand Howard into custody.
In an arrest report obtained by NBC News affiliate WESH 2 in Orlando, troopers said Howard told them after Tuesday’s crash that he was “driving very carefully” because he had been in a crash three days earlier. In that crash, troopers say he told them he “wrapped his mother’s car around a tree.”
Along with the fatalities on Tuesday, 40 others were hospitalized following the early morning crash in Marion County, about 80 miles north of Orlando.
During the brief hearing on Wednesday, Howard wore a jail smock with a bandage wrapped around his head. He held his shoulder or arms throughout Wednesday’s proceedings.
