A bus crash on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday morning killed five people, including two children, and injured more than three dozen others, the state police said.
The bus was in a southbound lane when its driver failed to slow for traffic as it approached a work zone near Quantico, Va., and it plowed into a Chevrolet Suburban around 2:35 a.m., the police said in a news release. That set off a series of collisions, with the Suburban pushed into an Acura SUV, as well as other vehicles.
All five people who died were in vehicles hit by the bus and the subsequent pileup: a 45-year-old male, a 44-year-old female, a 13-year-old female, and a seven-year-old male, all from Greenfield, Mass., in the Acura; and a 25-year-old female from Worcester, Mass., in the Suburban.
A spokesman with the Virginia State Police declined to say whether the four people in the Acura were related.
About 44 patients were transported to area hospitals, three with critical injuries, the police said. The bus was carrying about 34 people at the time of the crash.
The bus was operated by E & P Travel and heading from New York City to Charlotte, N.C. The driver, Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, N.Y., was injured in the crash. The police said they are looking into Mr. Dong’s actions before the crash, and that charges are pending.
The highway’s southbound lanes were closed for seven hours after the crash and began to reopen around 9:30 a.m., the Virginia Department of Transportation said on social media, and delays lingered throughout the morning.
The crash is under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a “go-team” to conduct a safety investigation.