Tragic Accident Claims Family Members on Their Way to Wedding

6 days ago 0

Four of the five people killed in a bus crash in Virginia were members of the same family from Massachusetts. They were on their way to a family wedding with a car loaded with desserts for the celebration. The wedding will proceed on Sunday in South Carolina but will also serve as a moment to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, a family member said Saturday.

“A son, a father, an entire family — all who were loved by us,” said Carolina Bublik. The Doncev family died early Friday when a passenger bus collided with vehicles that had slowed down due to road repairs on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia. Authorities reported a fifth person, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, died in an SUV. More people were treated for injuries, including one in critical condition, although most were released from the hospital, according to Mary Washington Healthcare.

A member of the National Transportation Safety Board planned to update reporters on the investigation Saturday. The bus was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Virginia State Police identified the driver as Jing S. Dong, 48, from Staten Island, New York.

Dmitri, 45, and Ecaterina, 44, immigrated to the United States from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts, Bublik noted. Dmitri worked as a nurse at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina was a stylist who spent days preparing desserts for the family wedding, Bublik shared. Dmitri and his brother Iuri tried to travel together in separate vehicles to South Carolina.

“At some point, they ended up separating,” Bublik recounted. “Dmitri told him, ‘You go ahead, I will catch up later.’ It was a big shock when Iuri arrived at the house. Dmitri should have arrived around the same time. When his car didn’t show and he didn’t answer the phone, that’s when the family began to panic.”