The bus driver involved in the crash on Interstate 95 last month that killed five people appeared in court Wednesday after getting released from the hospital.
Jing Dong, 48, appeared in court Wednesday for an arraignment hearing and to set a schedule in the case, according to Stafford General District Court and Rappahannock Regional Jail records.
He is charged with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving and will appear in Stafford General District Court again for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 28.
He is also due in Stafford County Circuit Court for an arraignment on June 22, according to WJLA-TV.
The charges against Mr. Dong are split between the two courts to ensure a swift trial, Stafford Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen said, according to WTVR-TV.
Mr. Dong was one of the 44 people injured in the early morning May 29 crash, which involved the bus he was driving and six other vehicles. He was released from the hospital and taken to the jail Monday morning, officials told WTOP-FM.
The driver of the first car hit by the bus, Priscilla Mafalda, 25, died at the scene after her car was pushed into another car. The occupants of that car, Dmitri Doncev, 45; Ecaterina Doncev, 44; and their children, Emily, 13, and Mark, 7, also died in the collision. All five victims were Massachusetts residents.
Mr. Dong is accused of failing to slow down for a work zone in the southbound lanes of I-95 near exit 143, which leads to Aquia and Garrisonville Road in Stafford.
Thad Furlong, Mr. Dong’s attorney, said that “we have had discussions on the defense team with him about his memory and what he recalls.”
“I can tell you that he has communicated with us what he remembers, and we are going to match that against the evidence that the commonwealth attorney gave us today to see if they match up,” the lawyer said, according to WTOP-FM.
Mr. Dong is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China and a Staten Island resident.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in the immediate aftermath of the crash that Mr. Dong did not speak English. His attorney says he knows some of the language, but he used a Mandarin interpreter in court Wednesday.
“He speaks limited English. How limited is anyone’s guess. I don’t know what he had to take, what test he had to take to get a commercial driver’s license, or what form he had to fill out. I’m not into that procedure, but he speaks some English. We use an interpreter because it’s much faster, and he prefers to talk in his native language, but he does speak some English,” Mr. Furlong said, according to WJLA-TV.
In addition to his charges in Virginia, Mr. Dong is also facing a speeding charge in Anne Arundel County, accused of driving a motorcoach bus at 72 mph in a 50 mph zone in March, according to WTVR-TV.
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