Bus driver charged with five counts of manslaughter in Virginia highway wreck

Virginia State Police

A tour bus driver has been charged with manslaughter stemming from the deaths of five people in a fiery chain-reaction crash that police say was triggered when the motor coach plowed into slower-moving traffic in a highway construction zone.

The driver, Jing Sheng Dong, 48, from Staten Island, New York, was initially charged the day after, on Saturday, with two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter. On Monday, a grand jury in Stafford County Circuit Court indicted him on three additional manslaughter counts and a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

Dong remains in custody without bond while being hospitalised for injuries he suffered in the pileup crash, which occurred in the early morning hours of Friday on Interstate 95 roughly 45 miles southwest of Washington, DC.

Police said a preliminary investigation found that the bus driver failed to slow for traffic ahead of him as he approached a highway work zone and slammed into the back of a Chevrolet Suburban, which was then forced into an Acura SUV and other vehicles.

The Acura caught fire and four of the fatalities, including two children, were in that vehicle, according to state police. A fifth person was killed in the Suburban that was struck by the bus.

All five of those who perished were from Massachusetts. More than 40 other people were injured in the crash, authorities said.