The driver of a charter bus involved in a deadly chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 in northern Virginia has been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with prosecutors signalling that additional charges are pending. Authorities identified the driver as Jing S. Dong, a New York-based operator who obtained his commercial licence in 2024, and said the investigation into the crash that killed five people remained active.
The collision unfolded in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, at around 2:35 a.m., on the southbound lanes of I-95 in Stafford County. Traffic was slowing ahead of a highway work zone when the bus, travelling at what investigators described as a high rate of speed, struck one or more vehicles that were moving slowly through the construction area, setting off a chain reaction that ultimately involved at least eight vehicles.
None of those killed were aboard the bus. Four of the victims were travelling together in an Acura that caught fire after the impacts: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts. Police said the family had been en route to a wedding. The fifth victim was identified as Priscilla Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was in a Suburban that the bus struck.
An additional 44 people were injured in the crash, several of them seriously, and hospitals in the region treated a wave of patients in the hours that followed. The scale of the casualties, and the involvement of multiple passenger vehicles caught between the bus and the slowing traffic, made it one of the deadliest highway incidents in the state in recent memory.
Court records describe Dong as a naturalised US citizen, originally from China, based in the Staten Island area of New York, and note that he is not an English speaker — a detail that has drawn attention to questions of commercial-licensing standards and oversight of the charter-bus sector. The operator of the bus has been identified in filings connected to the case as a travel company whose services were booked for the trip.
Investigators are continuing to examine the bus's speed, the driver's actions in the approach to the work zone and the signage and traffic controls in place at the construction site. The involuntary-manslaughter counts filed so far reflect two of the five deaths, and officials indicated the charges could be expanded as the inquiry into the cause of the crash proceeds.