STAFFORD COUNTY, VA — A bus crashed into vehicles slowing for a work zone on southbound Interstate 95 early Friday, killing five people and sending dozens more to hospitals, Virginia state police said. The wreck happened around 2:35 a.m. in Stafford County near Quantico, and investigators said the bus struck six vehicles after failing to slow with traffic.
Police said 44 people were taken to hospitals, including three in critical condition. The driver was also hospitalized, and authorities said there were roughly 34 passengers aboard the bus.
Who Were the Victims in the Cars Hit by the Bus?
All five people who died were in vehicles struck by the bus, not on the bus itself, police said. Four of the deaths were in one car that caught fire after the impact.
State police identified those victims as a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts. Their names were not released by police, though the school attended by the children said they were Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their children, Emily and Mark.
What Is Known About the Fifth Fatality and the Bus Driver?
The fifth person killed was a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, who was riding in an SUV hit by the bus, police said. Her name was not released.
Authorities identified the bus driver as Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York. State police said charges were pending. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that Dong was an American citizen originally from China and received his commercial driver’s license in New York two years ago.
How Severe Were the Injuries and Hospital Response?
Mary Washington Healthcare said it received 19 patients from the crash. Seven were taken to its trauma center in Fredericksburg, where four were later discharged and three remained in treatment, including one in serious condition and two in critical condition.
Another 12 patients were taken to the hospital in Stafford and were later discharged in good condition. A Federal Transit Administration spokesperson at the scene said patients were spread across multiple hospitals and called the crash one of the most tragic incidents he had seen.
What Happens Next in the Investigation?
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a go-team to investigate the crash and planned to have a spokesperson at the scene. By noon Friday, the southbound lanes had reopened, though a state transportation advisory still reported backups of a couple of miles.
The bus was operated by E&P Travel Inc. of Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Federal records showed the company had a satisfactory safety rating, one injury crash in the previous two years, four vehicles and 11 drivers.
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