GREENFIELD, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — The driver of the bus involved in Friday’s deadly Interstate 95 crash in Virginia has now been charged. Virginia State Police say 48-year-old Jing S. Dong faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter after the crash that killed five people, including four members of a Greenfield family.
Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, were killed when a motorcoach caused a chain-reaction crash with vehicles that had slowed down for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County around 2:35 a.m. Friday, authorities said. Investigators say the bus failed to slow for traffic approaching the work zone.
According to the Association Press, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, a monthslong task separate from the work of state police. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was moving at a high rate of speed.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said.
The bus, which was taking people from New York to North Carolina, was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
Chapman said the driver’s language proficiency would be part of the NTSB investigation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing police, said on social media that Dong, a native of China, does not speak English.
Dmitri Doncev, 45, was a nurse who worked at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina Doncev, 44, was a hairstylist who spent days making desserts for the family wedding, Bublik said.
They emigrated to the U.S. from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, she said.
Meanwhile, a fundraiser for the Doncev family has already surpassed its goal as the Greenfield community continues to mourn the loss.