The National Transportation Safety Board said the bus in the May 29 Stafford County crash traveled about 0.44 miles after it first struck vehicles backed up on Interstate 95. The charter bus, operated by E&P Travel Inc. and driven by Jing Dong, was moving just after 2:30 a.m. when it hit two cars and kept going.
Five people were killed and more than 40 people were injured. The bus then became part of a crash that involved eight additional vehicles, turning the first impact into a longer chain of collisions on Interstate 95.
Jing Dong and E&P Travel Inc.
Dong, 48, was charged with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving. His attorney, Thad Furlong, said, "When he woke up in the hospital and was informed that people lost their lives in this accident, he was devastated by that. He’s expressed how sorry he is about this incident many times to us" and, "It’s a genuine remorse. He wished it had never happened."
Dong was scheduled for arraignment in Stafford County Circuit Court on June 22, with a preliminary hearing set for Aug. 28 in General District Court. For anyone tracking the criminal case, those are the next court dates tied to the crash.
Interstate 95 work zone
The backup that Dong entered came from a 1.6-mile-long short-term work zone for overnight pavement resurfacing. That zone included closure of the southbound center lane, right lane and right shoulder, leaving traffic compressed into fewer lanes before the bus reached the end of the jam.
The NTSB, Virginia State Police, Virginia’s Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are handling the investigation. The preliminary report adds a key sequence detail: the bus did not slow before the crash, even as it entered backed-up traffic.
May 29 crash sequence
The first two vehicles struck included one Chevy Suburban and one Acura MDX. Five people in those vehicles died, including one occupant in the Chevy Suburban and four in the Acura MDX.
Why the bus continued for about 0.44 miles after the initial impact is not explained, and that missing piece sits at the center of the case now. The new report gives victims and their families a clearer crash sequence, but it does not yet answer how the bus carried on through the traffic jam after the first hit.
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