A bus crash that killed four people Tuesday morning led the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to shut down Sky Express Inc.
Driver fatigue may have caused the commercial tour bus to leave the road, go up an embankment and overturn on its roof about a quarter mile south of the Carmel Church exit just before 5 a.m. Four women died and dozens of people were injured, according to officials. Duffel bags, luggage and broken glass still littered the highway hours after the crash. A minor fuel leak was contained.
The bus was carrying 59 people, including the driver. Of the passengers, 52 exited the bus themselves, crawling through the front window and escape hatch and helping each other, and were transported for treatment. Six were extricated, including the four women who died. Their bodies have been transported to the chief medical examiner in Richmond.
The driver, Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., suffered minor injuries and stayed at the scene for questioning. He has been charged with reckless driving and is being held on $3,000 bond
Police told NBC Washington's Julie Carey that the driver may have nodded off before the crash. Police said Cheung was fatigued.
A rider who made it through the crash uninjured told NBC Washington's Jane Watrel that the driver of the bus was drinking cans of the energy drink Red Bull during the trip. Amy Denton, of New York City, said she was sitting in one of the seats directly behind the driver.
Denton said that after the crash, she heard the driver say, "I'm sorry," over and over again.
The injured were transported to eleven hospitals for treatment, including Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, MCV/VCU in Richmond and John Randolph in Hopewell.
Investigators from Virginia State Police are being joined by a team from the National Transportation Safety Board.
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FMCSA issued an unsatisfcatory rating for Sky Express, citing multiple violations in driver qualifications, drug and alcohol compliance, hours of service, and vehicle maintenance.
The bus departed from Greensboro, N.C. at 10:30 p.m. Monday, bound for Chinatown in New York City.
The Virginia Department of Transportation said the northbound lanes of I-95 were closed at mile marker 104 for several hours. The northbound left and center lanes were re-opened by 11:20 a.m.
Southbound I-95 traffic was not affected due to the thick woods in the median.
In March, 15 people were killed when a bus returning to New York City's Chinatown after an overnight excursion to a Connecticut casino toppled off an elevated highway and struck a utility pole, peeling off its roof. That accident heightened attention to bus safety by Transportation Department officials and members of Congress.
Federal authorities say almost 2,800 spot safety checks of passenger buses across the country from March 28 through April 6 resulted in about 10 percent of the vehicles or drivers being taken
off the road.
Sky Express has almost 50 citations for fatigued drivers -- including three categorized as serious, Carey reported. In the past two years, Sky Express -- which has 53 drivers for a fleet of 31 buses -- has had four crashes and has been issued 17 unsafe driving violations, including eight for speeding.
Sky Express said Cheung has never been involved in an accident before.
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