The charter bus driver behind the wheel during a chain-reaction crash that killed five people and injured more than 40 on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, has entered a plea of not guilty to multiple charges. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Sept. 28 with the trial set to begin Oct. 6.
At his formal arraignment Wednesday, 48-year-old Jing Sheng Dong, who was also injured in the crash, appeared before Stafford County Circuit Court Judge Charles Clark in a wheelchair wearing a tan jail-issued jumpsuit and orange Crocs. He smiled several times when the judge addressed him but listened and spoke through a Mandarin language interpreter.
Clark informed Dong he was being formally charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving. When asked if he understood the charges against him, he nodded yes while his interpreter said, “Yes, he understands.”
Dong ultimately faces five counts of involuntary manslaughter, but only three counts were addressed in circuit court Wednesday. Dong’s attorney Thomas Walsh said the prosecution filed two involuntary manslaughter counts at the district court level in order to avoid having a trial begin within five months, which is the case in circuit court.
“Because he’s being held, they have to have the trial within five months,” Walsh said, explaining there is no such obligation at the district court level.
Dong is currently being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail, but Walsh said he would request a bond hearing within the next two weeks.
“It helps me in preparing for trial because I can show him the evidence, and we can review it together instead of me always going down to the jail,” Walsh said.
Dong was driving the bus owned by E&P Travel of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, on May 29, carrying passengers from New York to North Carolina. The bus was traveling south around 2:30 a.m. when it plowed into a line of vehicles slowing for a construction zone near Marine Base Quantico.
The bus first struck a Chevy Suburban, killing the driver, 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda, of Worcester, Massachusetts. The bus then struck an Acura carrying a family of four from Greenfield, Massachusetts, according to Virginia State Police. Among the victims in the Acura were two children. Those victims were identified as 45-year-old Dmitri Doncev, his wife, Ecaterina, 44, their 13-year-old daughter Emily, and their 7-year-old son Mark.
“I need to voir dire to make sure I get a jury that’s fair and that will follow the law,” Walsh said. “Because it’s hard. You have five deceased people. My heart goes out to the families, trust me. But accidents happen. It doesn’t mean it rises to a criminal level. That’s what’s going to be litigated.”
Walsh added Dong was driving under the speed limit when the crash occurred and that Dong was neither under the influence of drugs nor alcohol, and was not using his cell phone.
The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the cause of the crash along with Virginia State Police.
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