{"id":133117,"date":"2026-02-14T00:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133117\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:19:10","slug":"driver-charged-after-deadly-bus-crash-on-thruway-last-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133117\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver charged after deadly bus crash on Thruway last August"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The driver of a tour bus that <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/nys\/buffalo\/news\/2025\/08\/22\/tour-bus-crash-shuts-down-eastbound-i-90-thruway-in-genesee-county\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crashed last August<\/a> on the New York State Thruway is facing multiple charges in connection with the incident that left five people dead.<\/p>\n<p>State Police say\u00a0Bin Shao, 56, of\u00a0New York City, has been charged with five counts of second-degree manslaughter and five counts of criminally negligent homicide.<\/p>\n<p>Shao was driving a tour bus owned by M&amp;Y Tour Inc.\u00a0based\u00a0in\u00a0Staten Island on Aug. 22 last year. The bus was traveling with 54 people on board from Niagara Falls back to the city\u00a0when\u00a0police\u00a0say\u00a0it\u00a0veered out of the lane, crossed into\u00a0traffic\u00a0and then rolled off the\u00a0Thruway near Pembroke. Five\u00a0people died\u00a0and\u00a0dozens were injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Police say there was no evidence Shao was impaired or under the influence, and that the\u00a0bus showed no mechanical failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe logistics of presenting all the charges for injured people were significant. The charges he was indicted with are the most serious charges that could come out of this incident. We felt that it was adequate to hold him accountable for his actions on that day,&#8221;\u00a0said\u00a0Kevin Finnell, Genesee County district attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Finnell and State Police would say little about what specifically those actions were, not commenting on went wrong and why Shao was unable to control the bus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t talk about the specifics of the prosecution&#8217;s case and the proof we have now,&#8221; said Finnell. &#8220;We intend and look forward to presenting all the evidence when the time comes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The several\u00a0months-long investigation led\u00a0to Shao&#8217;s arrest this week in Putnam County.<\/p>\n<p>Shao was\u00a0arraigned\u00a0Friday, where he pleaded not guilty. He is being held on\u00a0$100,00\u00a0bail and is due back in\u00a0court\u00a0March 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The driver of a tour bus that crashed last August on the New York State Thruway is facing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,113,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,308,380,200,1839],"class_list":{"0":"post-133117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-state-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-public-safety","18":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","19":"tag-vod","20":"tag-wendy-wright"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}