Bus driver in deadly Virginia crash charged with involuntary manslaughter

Virginia State Police

The bus driver blamed for the deadly accident on a Virginia interstate that killed at least five people and injured dozens more has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, Virginia State Police said on Saturday.

Driver Jing S Dong, who also suffered injuries from the crash, has been charged with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving, Virginia prosecutor Eric Olsen said on Monday.

The 29 May incident began when Dong “failed to slow for traffic” on Interstate 95 and hit a Chevrolet Suburban that plowed into other cars, igniting one on fire.

Dong remains in hospital in the custody of Virginia jail officials and will be transported to jail once discharged.

A grand jury indicted the driver, who is from Staten Island, New York, on three counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving on Monday, Olsen’s office said on Monday.

Dong had been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the weekend.

The investigation is ongoing, Olsen said on Saturday, but evidence gathered so far shows the tour bus was traveling “at a high rate of speed” when it struck multiple vehicles driving slow through a work zone. The result was “a chain reaction crash” involving at least eight vehicles.

There is enough evidence to suggest that Dong was driving in a “criminally negligent manner”, Olsen has said.

Dong was arrested on Saturday by the Virginia State Police and served with felony warrants in the hospital, Olsen said.

Each count of involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Five people died in the accident, including a 44-year-old female, a 13-year-old female, and a seven-year-old male. They were in a car that caught fire and had been on their way to a wedding in South Carolina, according to CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

They were identified to CBS News Boston as a family from Greenfield, Massachusetts – Dmitri Doncev, his wife, Ecaterina, their daughter Emily and son Mark.

The fifth victim, 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda, was in the Suburban that was initially struck by the bus.

The bus was operated by E&P Travel and heading to North Carolina from New York.

Roughly 44 people were sent to area hospitals after the collision, three with critical injuries, police said.

Police identify driver in Virginia bus crash that killed 5 and injured dozens