A Louisville man is facing dozens of criminal charges after police say he rear-ended a vehicle that was then pushed into a Jefferson County Public Schools bus carrying 23 students who were in the middle of getting off at their stop. Ervin Oxlaj-Perez was arrested Thursday and now faces 24 counts of wanton endangerment along with charges of driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, and driving without a license.
According to WLKY, Louisville Metro Police responded to the crash around 3:05 p.m. Thursday, per the arrest citation. Officers say Oxlaj-Perez rear-ended another vehicle, which was then pushed into the JCPS bus while students were exiting. The bus itself was carrying 23 students at the time, according to police.
Police say Oxlaj-Perez did not stay at the scene. He was later found around the corner from the crash, and officers described him as slurring his words, unable to keep his balance, and smelling of alcohol, per police. Oxlaj-Perez told police he had a drink about two hours before the crash, according to court records.
Injuries and the Aftermath at the Scene
The driver of the vehicle Oxlaj-Perez is accused of rear-ending suffered cuts to her wrist and face, according to police. Others at the scene refused treatment from EMS, per police. It remains unclear from available reporting whether any of the 23 students on the bus were physically injured.
Oxlaj-Perez was charged with 24 counts of wanton endangerment. Under Kentucky Revised Statutes § 508.060, first-degree wanton endangerment applies when conduct creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury under circumstances showing extreme indifference to human life, and it is classified as a Class D felony punishable by one to five years in prison per count, according to the Larmour Law Offices. With 24 separate counts, the potential prison exposure compounds significantly.
Separately, Kentucky Revised Statutes § 189.580 classifies property-damage-only hit-and-run as a Class A misdemeanor and makes leaving the scene a Class D felony carrying one to five years in prison when the crash results in death or serious physical injury, according to the Ruby Law Firm. That distinction means a crash involving death or serious physical injury can carry felony weight rather than a simple misdemeanor citation.
A District That Moves Tens of Thousands of Students Daily
Jefferson County Public Schools is Kentucky's largest school district, serving roughly 94,861 students and transporting around 46,000 bus riders daily across 640 routes across Metro Louisville, according to the district. For the 2026–2027 school year, the district also launched a mobile app called My Ride K-12 that gives parents real-time GPS tracking of buses and arrival estimates, according to Jefferson County Public Schools, part of a broader push to keep families informed about student transit.
Oxlaj-Perez is scheduled for arraignment Friday morning in Louisville. He was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident or failure to render aid, and no operator's license, in addition to the wanton endangerment counts.
Impaired Driving Remains a Persistent Local Problem
Jefferson County recorded 513 alcohol-related collisions in 2020, according to the Bryant Law Center. Statewide, comparable 2024 figures are not verified in the available sources.
School bus crashes themselves remain comparatively rare. State transportation data shows Kentucky logged 362 school bus-related collisions in 2024, with 34 of those classified as injury crashes, per the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Nationally, a 10-year study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that school-transportation-related crashes account for just 0.3% of all fatal traffic crashes, with 70% of fatalities in those crashes occurring to occupants of other vehicles rather than the bus itself.
The case adds to a string of impaired and hit-and-run driving incidents Hoodline has tracked across the Louisville area in recent weeks, including a driver's 0.204% BAC crash into a state trooper's cruiser in a work zone last month.
