Bus driver charged with five counts of manslaughter in Virginia highway wreck

June 1 (Reuters) - A tour ‌bus driver ​has ​been charged with manslaughter stemming from the deaths of five people in a fiery chain-reaction ‌crash that police say was triggered when the motor ⁠coach plowed into slower-moving traffic in a highway construction zone.

The driver, ‌Jing Sheng Dong, 48, ‌from Staten Island, New York, was initially charged the day after, on Saturday, with two felony counts of ​involuntary manslaughter. On Monday, a grand jury in Stafford County Circuit Court indicted him on three additional ⁠manslaughter counts and a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

Dong remains in custody without ​bond while being hospitalized for injuries he suffered in the pileup crash, which occurred in the ​early morning hours of Friday ‌on Interstate 95 roughly 45 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

Police said a preliminary investigation found ⁠that the bus driver failed to slow for traffic ahead of him as he approached a highway work zone and ⁠slammed into the back of a Chevrolet Suburban, which was then forced ​into an Acura SUV and other vehicles.

The Acura caught fire and four of the fatalities, including two children, were in that ‌vehicle, according to state police. A fifth person was killed in the Suburban that was ‌struck by the bus.

All five of those who perished ⁠were from Massachusetts. More than ‌40 other people ​were injured in the crash, authorities said.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Thomas ‌Derpinghaus)

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