Bus Crash in Virginia Shows Safety Problems in Bus Industry
Five people died when a bus crashed, raising questions about driver safety rules and bus company practices.
A bus crash in Virginia last week killed five people and hurt dozens more. The crash happened early Friday morning when a commercial bus was traveling from New York to North Carolina. Now people are asking questions about the bus driver, the company he worked for, and whether buses are safe enough. The driver had been caught speeding before, but he was still allowed to drive buses.
The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating what caused the crash. However, the accident shows how dangerous it can be when big vehicles like buses crash into other cars. Even though riding a bus is much safer than driving your own car, crashes can still be very serious. Many new cars have special technology that helps prevent crashes, but most commercial buses don't have these safety features yet.
The bus driver, Jing Sheng Dong, now faces serious criminal charges for the crash. Court records show he had been ticketed twice before for driving too fast. In 2024, he was caught driving 73 mph in a 55 mph zone in Virginia. Then in March, he got another ticket in Maryland for driving 72 mph in a 50 mph zone. Most bus companies would fire a driver after just one of these tickets, according to industry experts.
The crash happened around 2:30 in the morning, about five hours into the trip. This timing makes some experts wonder if the driver was too tired to drive safely. Federal rules say bus drivers can only drive for 10 hours or work for 15 hours before they must rest for at least eight hours. Electronic logs help track these hours, but some drivers have tried to cheat these systems.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says federal investigators are looking into Dong's background and the company that hired him. They're also checking the school that trained him and making sure New York followed the rules when giving him his commercial driver's license. The government has been working to make rules stricter for truck drivers, but not as much for bus drivers.
Safety experts have been asking for better safety rules for buses for many years. The National Transportation Safety Board makes recommendations to prevent crashes, but these suggestions often aren't followed. For example, they've asked for automatic braking systems on buses, but a rule requiring this technology was only proposed in 2023 and still isn't final. Commercial buses have only been required to have seat belts since 2016.
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.
Comprehension quiz preview
1. How many people died in the Virginia bus crash?
2. What time did the crash happen?
3. Since what year have commercial buses been required to have seat belts?