XPost: fl.general, misc.immigration.usa, sac.politics   
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   From: biden@drugs.com   
      
   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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