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Bus driver in Stafford Co. crash indicted on charges tied to all 5 deaths

The bus driver in Friday’s deadly chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, has now been indicted on five counts of involuntary manslaughter — one for each death resulting from the crash.

A grand jury in Stafford County Circuit Court also indicted Jing Sheng Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, on Monday on a reckless driving charge.

The crash in the southbound lanes of I-95 killed five people and injured dozens, and investigators said speed played a role in the bus failing to slow for traffic approaching a work zone on the highway.

Dong was due to appear in court Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, for a previous arrest on charges of speeding while driving a coach bus.

On March 9, 2026, at 1:20 a.m., Dong was clocked driving 72 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone on Route 3 southbound at Charles Hall Road in Anne Arundel County, Maryland State Police said.

According to Virginia court records, Dong had also previously been cited there for speeding. In November 2024 he was charged with driving 73 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond. He paid $219 in fines and costs.

Virginia State Police arrested Dong at the hospital Monday afternoon and was ordered held without bond. Dong is still hospitalized and recovering from injuries he suffered in the crash. Once he’s released, he’ll be taken to the Rappahannock Regional Jail pending his initial appearance before the Stafford General District Court and the Stafford Circuit Court.

The bus in Friday’s crash was operated by E&P Travel Inc. of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, the NTSB said. A compliance snapshot from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration showed one injury crash involving the company’s vehicles in the previous two years and listed its safety rating as satisfactory.

According to the NTSB, Dong’s bus failed to slow down while approaching a work zone and struck a Chevrolet Suburban, causing a chain-reaction where the SUV crashed into an Acura and other vehicles. The bus, which was carrying 34 people from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina, then hit additional vehicles.

Four of the people killed were inside the Acura: Dmitri Doncev, 45, a nurse who worked at Holyoke Medical Center; Ecaterina Doncev, 44; and their children, Emily and Mark. They were from Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Priscilla R. Mafalda, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, was inside the Suburban that was struck by the bus and died in the collision, according to the NTSB.

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.

Fatal Virginia crash raises questions about bus safety and the records of the driver and company

A commercial bus crash in Virginia that killed five people and injured dozens of others has raised questions about the driver, the company that employed him and the overall safety of the industry. It’s not yet clear what could have prevented last week's crash because the National Transportation Safety Board investigation is just beginning. Still, it highlights the inherent dangers whenever a bus or semitruck crashes into other vehicles — even if riding a bus is much safer statistically than driving a car. While collision-avoidance technology and emergency braking systems are standard on many new cars, commercial buses still lack them — even in the face of longtime NTSB recommendations and proposed regulations to require them. Observers say the circumstances of the crash that happened early Friday also raise questions about driver fatigue. Court records, meanwhile, show that the E&P Travel Inc. bus driver, who now faces manslaughter charges, was previously ticketed for excessive speeding, along with other drivers for the same company.
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