The driver of a charter bus involved in a devastating crash on I-95 in Virginia has now been formally charged after five people were killed, including a family of four on their way to a wedding.
Virginia State Police announced Saturday that 48-year-old Jing S. Dong faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Authorities said additional charges are likely as the investigation into the deadly wreck continues.
The crash happened Friday near Quantico, Virginia, when an E&P Travel Inc. motorcoach slammed into a work-zone traffic backup on Interstate 95.
The bus had been traveling from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Federal investigators said the motorcoach appeared to be traveling at a high rate of speed with little to no braking before the crash.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” NTSB board member Tom Chapman said.
The crash left behind a mangled scene on the highway, with the bus coming to rest in the median after the violent impact.
Five people were killed.
The victims have been identified as 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda and a Massachusetts family of four: Dimitri Doncev, Ecaterina Doncev, and their two children, Emily and Mark.
The Doncev family had reportedly been traveling to a family wedding when the crash happened.
The case has also drawn federal scrutiny after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Dong does not speak English. That revelation has triggered an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board into the driver’s language proficiency.
It was not immediately clear whether Dong was in custody or whether he had hired an attorney.
The deadly crash has raised questions about driver qualifications, highway safety and what happened in the moments before the bus plowed into stopped traffic.
For the families of the victims, what was supposed to be a trip to a celebration ended in unimaginable tragedy.
Virginia State Police said the investigation remains ongoing, and more charges could be filed.
