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Man pleads in street racing crash with APS school bus
An APS School was flipped on its side in a street racing crash at Gibson and Messina SW in 2022. The driver of a Mustang pleaded guilty Monday to five counts of reckless driving.
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A man who crashed into a school bus in Albuquerque resulting in injuries to children in 2022 pleaded guilty Monday to five felony counts of reckless driving resulting in great bodily harm.
Mario Perez, 52, was racing at high speed with another driver when he struck the Albuquerque Public Schools bus full of children. The force of the collision at Messina and Gibson SW caused the school bus to flip on its side and sent five people to the hospital, some of them middle school students.
Perez faces up to 15 years in prison at a sentencing hearing before 2nd Judicial District Judge Bruce Fox. The hearing had not been scheduled Monday morning. The plea agreement cut short a non-jury bench trial for Perez that had been scheduled this week before Fox.
Perez and the school bus driver also were hospitalized after the crash. Two students, ages 13 and 14, had injuries that included a broken pelvis and a broken femur that required surgery, Albuquerque police said at the time.
One witness told police that Perez appeared to be traveling more than 110 mph in the 40 mph zone just before the crash, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.
Police responded to the crash at 4:05 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2022, when they found the school bus on its side and a white Ford Mustang on fire.
Witnesses told police that Perez, the driver of the white Mustang, was racing with the driver of a blue Mustang moments before the crash. The two cars were racing west on Gibson SW when Perez’s car struck the school bus.
