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.
While those tickets might not have been enough to automatically revoke the man’s commercial driver’s license, industry experts say even one similar violation would normally get a driver fired.
“The fact that there was one conviction and another citation and this driver is still on the road goes against industry norms and best practices in a pretty significant way,” said Fred Ferguson, who leads the American Bus Association trade group.
That NTSB crash investigators also have no power to enforce their recommendations factors into why so many have gone unfulfilled for years, as the industry and regulators often focus on the potential costs involved.
“Everybody walks a walk in talking safety at the industry level, at the congressional level. And then at the end of the day, it’s the same old excuses,” said Jim Hall, who was chairman of the NTSB during the 1990s. “And if it costs money, there’s going to be a strong resistance.”
A history of speeding
Federal rules say that a driver who is convicted twice within three years for driving more than 15 mph over the limit should be disqualified for 60 days.
The bus driver in last week’s crash, Jing Sheng Dong, of New York City, was previously convicted of driving 73 mph (117 kph) in a 55 mph (89 kph) zone in Virginia in 2024, and received a second ticket in March in Annapolis, Maryland, that accused him of driving a motorcoach 72 mph (116 kph) in a 50 mph (80 kph) zone. The 48-year-old is now facing five charges of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving.
But Ned Einstein, an expert witness in some 700 transportation lawsuits, said he doubts the criminal charges filed after the crash will be effective at making roads safer because Dong didn’t create the conditions that likely contributed to it.
“They never hit the heart of the problem and never go after the person who’s responsible, and the person that’s responsible for these things is the person that runs the company,” Einstein said, explaining that drivers have to take the shifts they are given while company owners set the schedules and run the businesses.
Friday’s crash also happened around 2:30 a.m. ET — roughly five hours into a trip from New York to North Carolina. That makes former state trooper Jeremy Disbrow, who helps train law enforcement with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, wonder whether fatigue may have been a factor.