4 of 5 victims of Virginia bus crash were traveling to a family wedding, relative says
A family of four from Massachusetts was killed in an incident. bus crashed into many vehicles We were headed to a wedding in Virginia with a car full of homemade desserts to celebrate.
The family wedding will be held Sunday in South Carolina, but it will also be a time to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, a relative said Saturday.
“A son, a father, the whole family, everyone who is dear to us,” Carolina Bublik said.
The Doncevs were killed when a motor bus crashed into slowing vehicles in a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County around 2:35 a.m. Friday. A fifth person, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, died in an SUV, authorities said.
Mary Washington Healthcare said although most of those injured were released from the hospital, more people were treated, including one in critical condition.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, a months-long task separate from the work of the Virginia State Police. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was traveling at a high rate of speed.
“It seems pretty clear that due to the speed and severity of the collision, there wasn’t much to do at all with any braking,” Chapman said.
The bus that takes people from New York to North Carolina is E&P Travel Inc., headquartered in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. It was operated by. Police identified the driver as Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York.
Dong’s language proficiency will be part of the NTSB investigation, Chapman said. Transport Minister Sean Duffy, citing the police, said on social media that Dong, a Chinese citizen, did not speak English.
Dmitri Doncev, 45, was a nurse working at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina Doncev, 44, was a hairdresser who spent days preparing desserts for a family wedding, Bublik said.
He said they immigrated to the United States from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Dmitri and his brother Iuri tried to stay together as they traveled to South Carolina in separate vehicles.
“They broke up at some point,” Bublik said. “Dmitri said, ‘You go on. I’ll catch up later.’ It was a big shock when Iuri came home. Dmitri should have arrived at the same time. When his car didn’t arrive and he didn’t answer the phone, the family started to panic.”
