Virginia Bus Crash: Driver Charged with Manslaughter
A bus driver from Staten Island, New York, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter following a tragic crash on a Virginia highway. The incident occurred early Friday morning on Interstate 95 in Stafford County. Jing S. Dong, aged 48, was charged after the crash that killed at least five individuals and injured nearly 48 others. Additional charges may follow, according to Virginia State Police.
The collision took place around 2:35 a.m. Eastern Time when the bus, failing to slow down, collided with six vehicles. The initial impact was with a Chevrolet Suburban, which in turn struck an Acura SUV and several other cars. Tragically, four passengers in the Acura perished in the accident, and one individual from the Suburban lost their life. The bus was carrying 34 passengers at the time.
The victims in the Acura have been identified as a family from Greenfield, Massachusetts, consisting of Dmitri Doncev, his wife Ecterina, their daughter Emily, aged 13, and their son Mark, 7. They were traveling to a wedding in South Carolina. The deceased from the Suburban was identified as 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Virginia State Police reported sending 44 injured individuals to regional hospitals, three of whom sustained critical injuries. Initial investigations suggest traffic was slowing for a work zone at the time of impact, and the bus failed to reduce speed accordingly. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also conducting an investigation. The bus, operated by E&P Travel of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, was en route from New York to North Carolina.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking, there wasn’t much, due to the speed and severity of the collision,” stated NTSB member Tom Chapman. He emphasized it is too early to ascertain the precise circumstances inside the vehicle.
The NTSB plans to release a preliminary report in the next 30 days. Both state police and the NTSB are scrutinizing the bus driver’s actions before the accident. Investigators will examine the driver’s activities over the days leading up to the crash, exploring possible sleep issues, distractions, and drug or alcohol use.