The passenger bus that crashed in Stafford County on May 29, killing five and injuring dozens, travelled for nearly a half mile after first contacting a line of vehicles stopped for a work zone.
That’s one new piece of information gleaned from a preliminary report on the crash released by National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday.
The bus, which was operated by E&P Travel, Inc. and bound for Charlotte, N.C., was traveling southbound on Interstate 95 and didn’t slow as it approached the work zone near mile marker 146.6 around 2:30 a.m.
The NTSB report states that the work zone was established for overnight paving and resulted in closure of the southbound center lane, right lane and right shoulder from 9 p.m.-5 a.m..
Before coming to a stop, the bus collided with eight vehicles over .44 miles. Four of the five fatalities were in an Acura SUV that became consumed by a fire, the NTSB report states.
The driver of the bus, Jing S. Dong, faces five felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and recently made his first court appearance, where he was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and expressed remorse for his role.
The NTSB’s investigation remains ongoing, the report states, and the agency will continue to work to find a probable cause for the crash.
