Bus crash on Virginia interstate kills 5, injures 44 after hitting vehicles

A bus crashed into vehicles slowing for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Virginia early on Friday killing five people and injuring dozens including the driver authorities said The crash happened at about 235 am on southbound I95 in Stafford County near Quantico Virginia All five of the people who died were in vehicles hit by the bus and 44 people were taken to hospitals including three in critical condition police saidThe preliminary investigation indicates that traffic was slowing southbound for an upcoming work zone state police said in a news release A bus failed to slow for traffic and struck six vehicles Police said there were approximately 34 passengers on board the bus We have got patients in multiple hospitals We have got the driver at a hospital here said Peyton Vogel a Federal Transit Administration spokesperson who was on the sceneI have got to say this is one of the most tragic things I have ever seen Absolutely tragic Four of the fatalities were in one car which caught fire State police said the victims were a 45yearold male a 44yearold female a 13yearold female and a sevenyearold male all from Greenfield Massachusetts The fifth victim a 25yearold female from Worcester Massachusetts was in an SUV that was struck by the busState police identified the bus driver as Jing S Dong 48 of Staten Island NY Charges are pending authorities said Mary Washington Healthcare said it received 19 patients from the crash It posted online that seven of the patients were taken to its trauma centre in Fredericksburg where four were being discharged and three remained in treatment one in serious condition and two in critical condition Twelve were taken to its hospital in Stafford where they were later discharged in good conditionThe National Transportation Safety Board posted online that it was sending a goteam to conduct a safety investigation into the crash and that it would have a spokesperson at the scene The southbound lanes had reopened by noon but traffic was still backed up for a couple of miles according to a state transportation advisory Passengers describe chaos inside the bus Two of the surviving passengers bruised and shaken described what it was like inside the bus in an interview with the Richmond TimesDispatch outside the hospital where they had been examinedRhonda Wright and Wayne Tobin said they sensed something was wrong well before the crash describing the driver as reckless and the bus as travelling at extremely high speeds before it slammed into the slowing traffic The initial collision was only the start of their terror they said the bus kept moving striking one vehicle after another as passengers screamed smoke filled the interior and belongings flew through the air The bus was still going still hitting cars Wright saidWe felt like we were in a death trap because there was no way to stop the bus When the bus finally stopped people scrambled to escape through the windows Tobin said he emerged covered in blood from other passengers Wright said one mans teeth had been knocked out I am 64 years old and I thought I was going to die Wright said I am just glad I am alive today Tobin was headed to Raleigh for his mothers funeral Wright was travelling farther to Greensboro to visit family Both were missing their phones and identification in the wreckage of the bus My wallet is in there my ID is in there my phone is in there Wright saidYou cannot do anything without your ID Bus company had satisfactory record The bus was operated by E and P Travel Inc based in Kings Mountain NC A compliance snapshot from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration showed only one injury accident involving the companys vehicles in the previous two years and listed its compliance rating as satisfactoryThe company was incorporated on November 24 2023 by Shuo Liu according to records from the North Carolina Secretary of States office Liu is also listed as the registered agent The FMCSA site said the company operated four vehicles and had 11 drivers While it is too soon to say what caused Fridays crash federal authorities have been grappling with interstate passenger bus safety issues for decades Following a series of passenger bus crashes in 2008 that killed 41 people the US Department of Transportation published a Motorcoach Safety Action PlanThe NTSB investigated 16 fatal motorcoach crashes between June 1998 and January 2008 finding that driverrelated problems such as fatigue medical condition and inattention accounted for 56 per cent of the accidents The agency said driverrelated problems were responsible for 60 per cent of the fatalities in those crashes Among the actions recommended were creation of a preemployment driver history screening programme and a national drug and alcoholtesting database to enable motorcoach operators to determine if drivers have a history of violating DOT alcohol or drug rulesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever