Statesman Wins Top SPJ Awards for Fatal Bus Crash, Texas Politics Coverage

Austin American-Statesman reporters received two prestigious Sigma Delta Chi awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for their work examining the aftermath of a fatal school bus crash and analyzing the national implications of Texas politics.

The awards honored a four-part series, “A fatal field trip,” with the prize for non-deadline reporting. The series chronicled the crash of a Hays school district bus in Bastrop County in March 2024, killing a 5-year-old student and a man traveling behind the bus. It also examined the key contributors to the deadly collision.

“Records and data were coupled with excellent source development to yield a master class in narrative reconstruction, telling in rich detail what happened when a cement truck collided with a school bus,” judges said.

The Sigma Delta Chi award, which honors the best in newspaper, digital, television and radio journalism, is the latest honor for the reporting effort.

It also previously received the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting and an award for investigative and public service reporting from the national Education Writers Association. It also took first- and third-place honors from the Society of Features Journalism. Additionally, the series is a finalist for an investigative and public service reporting award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Maria Recio, the Statesman’s Washington, D.C., correspondent, also was honored with a Sigma Delta Chi award in the Washington correspondence category for an entry “Texas elections tilt fast and furious.”

“The veteran Washington reporter examined multiple political races in Texas, a bellwether for a conservative leaning national mood paying particular and detailed attention to money in campaigns,” judges wrote.