Five people were killed, including two children, and more than 40 others were sent to area hospitals early Friday morning after police say a bus struck multiple vehicles near a work zone on southbound Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia.
Virginia State Police said a coach bus crashed at 2:35 a.m. at the 146-mile marker, near Marine Corps Base Quantico, where traffic was slowing through a work zone.
All five of the people who died were from Massachusetts, though they were inside two different vehicles. Police said 44 people were transported to hospitals, three with critical injuries.
The bus failed to slow down while approaching the zone and struck a Chevrolet Suburban, causing a chain-reaction where the SUV crashed into an Acura and other vehicles.
The bus then hit additional vehicles. Police said that coach bus, operated by E&P Travel, was carrying around 34 occupants from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Four of the people who were killed were inside the Acura: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. They were from Greenfield, Massachusetts.
A 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, was inside the Suburban struck by the bus and died in the collision.
The driver of the bus is among those who were injured, a 48-year-old man from Staten Island, New York. Police said they’re investigating what he was doing in the moments leading up to the crash, and they plan to file charges.
Nineteen of the patients have been treated at Mary Washington Healthcare; 12 were released from a hospital in Stafford and one from a Fredericksburg hospital, according to a from the hospital group.
Six adults are hospitalized at the hospital in Fredericksburg 鈥� one in critical condition, two in serious condition and three in fair condition, as of 3 p.m., Mary Washington Healthcare said.
Crash investigation underway
All southbound lanes of the interstate were blocked for hours as police investigated the crash and the highway fully reopened shortly before noon.
The National Transportation Safety Board posted online Friday that it was sending a 鈥済o-team鈥� to conduct a safety investigation into the crash.
When firefighters arrived, they worked to put out the vehicle fires and figure out how many patients were in each vehicle, several of which were extricated. The Acura was among the vehicles that caught on fire, police said.
“We had 13 transport units, two heavy rescue squads, multiple suppression pieces,” said Katie Brady, a spokeswoman for Stafford County Fire and Rescue. “Then multiple support resources like SUVs.”
Brady said the department declared a mass casualty incident Friday morning to open up mutual aid and additional resources.
“This is going to stick with some people for a while, and we’ll continue to check on those responders in the days and weeks to come,” Brady said. “Thankfully not something that we have to handle very often, but certainly glad that we trained for it.”
In a post on social media, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger thanked first responders, including police and Stafford County Fire and Rescue, for their rescue efforts.
“My office and our state agencies have been working to respond to the deadly crash on I-95 that occurred early this morning. My heart is with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and I am praying for a quick recovery for those injured,” Spanberger wrote.
Bus company
The bus is operated by a company based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, about 30 miles west of Charlotte.
Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show involving an injury with an聽E&P Travel vehicle in the past two years. The company’s compliance rating is listed as 鈥渟atisfactory.鈥�
According to the safety administration, E&P Travel operates four vehicles and has 11 drivers.
麻豆官网’s Kyle Cooper and The Associated Press contributed to this report.聽
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 麻豆官网. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
