A passenger bus crashed into multiple vehicles that were slowing for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday, killing five people and injuring dozens more, according to the Virginia State Police. The crash occurred at approximately 2:35 a.m. on southbound I-95 in Stafford County, near Quantico.
Authorities said the bus failed to slow for slowed traffic ahead of an upcoming work zone and struck six vehicles. Four of the five people who died were members of one family from Greenfield, Massachusetts whose vehicle caught fire upon impact. The fifth victim was a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, who was in an SUV struck by the bus.
What the Right Is Saying
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated on social media that bus driver Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, is an American citizen originally from China who obtained his commercial driver's license two years ago in New York. Charges against Dong are pending, authorities said.
The bus was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. A compliance snapshot from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration showed only one injury accident involving the company's vehicles in the previous two years and listed its safety rating as "satisfactory." The company was incorporated in November 2023 and operated four vehicles with 11 drivers.
What the Left Is Saying
Transportation safety advocates are using the crash to renew calls for stricter federal oversight of passenger bus companies. Following a series of motorcoach crashes in 2008 that killed 41 people, the U.S. Department of Transportation published a Motorcoach Safety Action Plan with recommendations including pre-employment driver history screening and a national drug- and alcohol-testing database.
Federal Transit Administration spokesperson Peyton Vogel, who was on the scene, said: "We've got patients in multiple hospitals. We've got the driver at a hospital here. I've got to say, this is one of the most tragic things I've ever seen. Absolutely tragic."
The National Transportation Safety Board announced it was sending a go-team to conduct a safety investigation into the crash.
What the Numbers Show
Forty-four people were taken to hospitals following the crash, including three in critical condition. Mary Washington Healthcare received 19 patients from the crash, with seven taken to its trauma center in Fredericksburg where four were discharged and three remained in treatment—one in serious condition and two in critical. Twelve patients were treated at the hospital in Stafford and later discharged in good condition.
The bus was carrying approximately 34 passengers. The victims included a 45-year-old male, a 44-year-old female, a 13-year-old female, and a 7-year-old male from Greenfield, Massachusetts, identified by their school as the Doncev family: Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their children Emily and Mark.
The Bottom Line
The southbound lanes of I-95 had reopened by noon on Friday, though traffic remained backed up for several miles. While authorities say it is too early to determine what caused the crash, NTSB data from 16 fatal motorcoach crashes between June 1998 and January 2008 found that driver-related problems such as fatigue, medical conditions, and inattention accounted for 56 percent of accidents and 60 percent of fatalities. The investigation into Friday's crash remains ongoing.
The Doncev family was remembered by Providence Christian Academy in a statement: "The Doncev family was a cherished part of our school community, and their loss is being felt deeply by our students, families, faculty, and staff."