Virginia Bus Crash Results in Five Fatalities and Numerous Injuries; Driver Charged

By May 30, 2026 / 6:32 PM EDT / CBS News

Virginia State Police reported that a bus driver involved in a fatal crash on a Virginia highway has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The accident took place early Friday morning and resulted in at least five deaths and nearly four dozen injuries.

Jing S. Dong, aged 48 from Staten Island, New York, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Police indicated additional charges might be forthcoming. Dong was also injured in the collision.

The incident occurred on Interstate 95 in Stafford County at around 2:35 a.m. Eastern Time. The bus was unable to slow down in time for approaching traffic, leading to a crash involving six vehicles. The bus initially collided with a Chevrolet Suburban, which then struck an Acura SUV and several other vehicles.

The collision claimed the lives of four individuals in the Acura: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl, and a 7-year-old boy. The vehicle caught fire post-collision. CBS News Boston identified them as a family from Greenfield, Massachusetts, en route to a wedding in South Carolina. The victims were Dmitri Doncev, his wife Ecterina, their daughter Emily, and son Mark.

Another fatality was reported from the Chevrolet Suburban, a 25-year-old woman named Priscilla Mafalda from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Virginia State Police noted that 44 individuals were transported to nearby hospitals, with three in critical condition. At the time of the crash, the bus carried 34 passengers.

Initial findings suggested that traffic was slowing as vehicles approached a work zone in the southbound lane. The bus then failed to slow accordingly, leading to the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also conducting an investigation.

According to the NTSB, the bus was operated by E&P Travel of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and was transporting passengers from New York to North Carolina. NTSB member Tom Chapman noted, “It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking, there wasn’t much, because of the speed and the severity of the collision.” He mentioned that it’s “too early yet to know exactly what was happening on board the vehicle.” The NTSB expects their preliminary report within 30 days.

Both the state police and the NTSB are investigating the actions of the bus driver prior to the crash. Chapman stated, “One of the things that we do, as a matter of course, is we do a 72-hour look back to see what the driver’s activities were during the days leading up to the crash.” They are checking for sleep, distraction, and potential drug or alcohol issues.