The latest “unacceptable” crash involving state licensing left five dead, including two children, after a foreign-born driver with a language barrier rammed a bus into traffic, injuring dozens more.
(Video Credit: NBC10 Boston)
After 2 a.m. Friday morning, construction traffic on I-95 turned into tragedy when a bus traveling from New York to North Carolina failed to slow down. With the deaths of at least four family members and an as-yet-unidentified fifth woman, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an investigation into New York amid reports that the driver from China does not speak English.
“Five people are dead, including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, after the driver of a motorcoach slammed into stopped traffic on I-95,” the secretary stated on X as reports revealed the driver to be naturalized U.S. citizen Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York. “Local police confirm the driver of this motorcoach — a man from China who became a U.S. citizen — doesn’t speak English. He received his commercial drivers license from New York State in 2024.”
“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,” said Duffy.
Update on the tragic bus crash in Virginia:
Five people are dead, including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, after the driver of a motorcoach slammed into stopped traffic on I-95. @FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs and our investigators are on the ground at the crash… pic.twitter.com/NWPBd9aLPr
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 29, 2026
According to police, the children were in the car ahead of the one the bus hit, along with their parents, a 45-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, who also died after their vehicle caught fire.
Based on a statement from the Greenfield, Massachusetts school the children attended, Providence Christian Academy, the Associated Press reported the victims were parents Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev, daughter Emily, and son Mark. The fifth fatality was a 25-year-old woman in the car struck by the bus from Worcester, Massachusetts. Police indicated that 44 others were taken to nearby hospitals, with at least three people in critical condition.
🚨TRAGIC CRASH–
A bus carrying 34 people collides with several cars killing 5 people, and injuring 44 people, 3 of them with critical injuries.
The images show the power of the crash.
Four of the fatalities were in an Acura and include a 45 year old man, 44 year old woman,… pic.twitter.com/yBFZXOwyPh
— Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) May 29, 2026
“If you can’t be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus,” insisted Duffy. “Our investigators are reviewing New York licensing records, training documentation, and the driver’s history. Any company, trainer, or school that contributed to putting an unqualified driver on the road will face intense scrutiny.”
Friday’s tragedy is only the latest in a series of high-profile fatal crashes that have occurred amid a crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration on state licensing authorities issuing driving credentials to illegal aliens, non-permanent residents, or, in this case, citizens lacking the basic qualifications necessary to navigate American roadways.
As was previously reported, a 20-year-old and a 16-year-old from Stockton, California, were killed near Lodi after a Freightliner driven by illegal alien Manvir Singh allegedly failed to stop. Singh had obtained a California Commercial Driver’s License in March 2025, some two years after entering the country illegally.
In February, Duffy announced a rule to put an end to unqualified drivers obtaining CDLs and had said in a statement, “For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems — wreaking havoc on our roadways. Moving forward, unqualified foreign drivers will be unable to get a license to operate an 80,000-pound big rig.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are putting the safety of the driving public first,” he went on. “From enforcing English language standards to holding fraudulent carriers accountable, we will continue to attack this crisis on our roads head-on.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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