UMVA has learned that a devastating crash on Interstate 95 in Virginia, which claimed the lives of five people and injured dozens more, has led to charges of driving under the influence and without a valid license against the 48-year-old bus driver, Jing Sheng Dong.
Dong, a non-English-speaking naturalized U.S. citizen from China, was driving a bus from New York to North Carolina when he struck a line of vehicles that had slowed down in a work zone at a high rate of speed. The victims included a family of four from Greenfield, Massachusetts, who were traveling to attend a wedding, along with an unidentified 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Among the family members killed were a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, a tragedy that has sent shockwaves through the community. Dong, who received his commercial driver's license from New York in 2024, is charged with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that Dong has a history of reckless driving, including previous accusations of speeding 18 miles per hour over the limit in Colonial Heights, Virginia, and 22 miles per hour over the limit in Annapolis, Maryland. He also has a pending trespassing case in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that Dong was naturalized under the Obama administration on August 14, 2012. His lack of English proficiency has raised serious questions about his ability to operate a bus safely, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stating, "If you can't be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus."
The investigation into the crash is ongoing, with U.S. Department of Transportation special agents reviewing Dong's licensing records, training documentation, and driving history. The NTSB has launched a team to investigate the crash, and any company or individual found to have contributed to putting an unqualified driver on the road will face intense scrutiny.
Duffy has vowed to hold states accountable and crack down on drivers who can't speak English, stating, "Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states' accountable, enforcing the rules of the road, and cracking down on drivers who can't speak English." The bus operator, E&P Travel Inc., and its CEO, Shuo Liu, are also under investigation.
