Five Dead, Forty-Four Hurt. The Driver Didn’t Speak English, Had Two Speeding Convictions, a DUI, and No Valid License. He Got His CDL in New York.

Jing Sheng Dong, 48, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China, plowed a charter bus carrying 51 passengers into stopped I-95 highway traffic in the early hours of May 30, 2026, killing five — including two children and their parents. He could not speak English, had been cited twice in the prior eighteen months for driving 18 to 22 mph over the speed limit in a commercial vehicle, carried no valid license at the time, and was found to have been drunk. The federal English proficiency rule he violated has been law since 1937. New York handed him a CDL anyway.

• 5people killed — Dimitri, Ecaterina, Emily, and Mark Doncev (a family of four from Greenfield, MA, en route to a wedding) and Priscilla Mafalda, 25. Forty-four others hospitalized; three critically.
• 53%of New York's foreign commercial driver's licenses — more than 17,000 of 32,000 reviewed — were found illegally issued in a December 2025 federal audit. DOT withheld $174 million in federal highway funds from New York in April 2026 over the same failures.
• 1937— the year 49 C.F.R. § 391.11(b)(2), the federal English proficiency requirement for commercial drivers, went into effect. The Obama administration relaxed enforcement; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded that relaxation in May 2025.
• $0in disqualification or suspension — despite two speeding convictions in 18 months exceeding 15 mph over the limit while operating a commercial vehicle, which under federal rules should have triggered a 60-day CDL disqualification. E&P Travel kept Dong employed.

At approximately 2:35 a.m. on May 30, 2026, a charter motorcoach operated by E&P Travel— a four-vehicle North Carolina company — was southbound on I-95 near Stafford, Virginia, roughly 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., carrying 51 passengers from New York City to Charlotte. Traffic had backed up behind a highway work zone. The bus did not slow. Investigators found little or no evidence of braking before impact.

The bus struck a Chevrolet Suburban, which was pushed into an Acura SUV. The Acura caught fire on impact. The Doncevs — Dimitri, 45, Ecaterina, 44, Emily, 13, and Mark, 7, all of Greenfield, Massachusetts — were in one of the vehicles. They were going to a family wedding in South Carolina. They did not arrive. Priscilla Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the Suburban. She also died. Forty-four others were hospitalized. Three were in critical condition.

Keep Reading

DOGE Watch · California

California Is Billing Medicaid $826/Day for Shamanic Drum Circles. Vance Froze $1.3 Billion.

Read →

Jing Sheng Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York. Born in China, naturalized U.S. citizen August 14, 2012. At the crash scene, Virginia State Troopers confirmed he could not speak English. He refused an English Language Proficiency test. The U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed he failed the English proficiency requirement. DHS confirmed he had a DUI charge. He carried no valid driver’s license at the time of the crash.

His CDL was issued by the New York State DMV in 2024 after he completed entry-level driver training at “7 CDL Driving School”in New York. New York offered the CDL written knowledge test in Chinese, Spanish, and Russian in addition to English. New York claims Dong completed his road skills test in Virginia, not New York, and that federal rules required New York to accept those results. The FMCSA subpoena issued June 2, 2026 demanded records from both the New York DMV and from “7 CDL Driving School.”

His documented driving record before the crash:

• November 2024: Convicted of driving 73 mph in a 55 mph zone in Colonial Heights, Virginia — 18 mph over the limit while operating a bus with passengers.
• March 9, 2026: Cited by Maryland State Police for driving 72 mph in a 50 mph zone — 22 mph over the limit, while operating a charter bus with passengers.
• Both violations exceed the 15 mph threshold that triggers a 60-day CDL disqualification under federal law. E&P Travel kept him employed through both.

A Stafford County grand jury indicted Dong on five counts of felony involuntary manslaughter (one per victim) and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving. Separate DHS charges of DUI and driving without a valid license were confirmed by a DHS spokesperson to Fox News. Dong was hospitalized after the crash; as of reporting, he was undergoing surgery and on a ventilator.

On June 2, 2026, the FMCSA issued a formal subpoena to the New York State DMV demanding all documents related to Dong’s CDL issuance, entry-level driver training records, and the investigation files for “7 CDL Driving School.” The agency set a 10 a.m. Wednesday deadline and warned that failure to comply could result in criminal or civil contempt penalties — a signal it concluded New York would not cooperate voluntarily.

New York’s response: a spokesperson called Duffy’s approach “heartless politicizing of a tragedy.” Governor Kathy Hochul’s (D) administration argued Dong had taken his road skills test in Virginia, not New York, and that federal rules obligated the state to accept those results. The argument elides the core question: why did a CDL school in New York produce a commercial driver who could not read English road signs, and why did New York issue him the credential?

“Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states accountable, enforcing the rules of the road, and cracking down on drivers who can't speak English.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy · May 30, 2026

Keep Reading

DOGE Watch · ACA / Obamacare

6.4 Million People Are Getting Obamacare Subsidies They Don't Qualify For. It Costs $27 Billion a Year.

Read →

Dong was not an outlier. He was a product of a documented systemic failure that federal regulators had already flagged, litigated, and been defied on — years before anyone died.

• December 2025 federal audit:53% of New York’s foreign-national commercial driver’s licenses — more than 17,000 of 32,000 reviewed — were found to have been issued in violation of federal law.
• April 2026: Duffy withheld $174 million in federal highway funds from New York over its CDL issuance failures.
• October 2025: A 51-count indictment exposed criminal activity at a Long Island DMV facility where state employees allegedly took CDL exams on behalf of applicants.
• E&P Travel’s record: The four-vehicle, 11-employee company had a prior incident in a 2024 North Carolina crash. Federal records show multiple safety violations.

The criminal law puts the question on Jing Sheng Dong. The grand jury has answered that with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and is considering additional charges. But the accountability trail runs further.

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY)oversaw a DMV that issued 17,000+ illegal CDLs during her tenure, defied the federal $174 million fund withholding, and — as of the morning of May 30, 2026 — was still offering the CDL knowledge test in Chinese. Her office’s response to the subpoena was to call it a political attack.

E&P Travel employed a driver who had been cited twice in eighteen months for commercial speeding exceeding federal disqualification thresholds and kept him on payroll through both citations. The company placed him on a 51-passenger charter route in the dark at 2:35 a.m.

“7 CDL Driving School” produced a commercial driver who could not pass a basic English proficiency test. The FMCSA subpoena treats their records as material to the investigation. The question their records will answer: did the school attest to competencies Dong never demonstrated?

The Doncev family was going to a wedding. They are not going home. The rule that was supposed to prevent this was written in 1937, was relaxed by the Obama administration for reasons it never adequately explained, was reinstated a year before the crash, and was still being circumvented by New York’s CDL testing language policy on the morning Jing Sheng Dong got behind the wheel.

More From Civic Intelligence

Alien Crime · Immigration Fraud

AI Scammers Are Cloning Immigration Lawyers' Identities — Then Robbing Desperate Immigrants of Everything.

Criminal rings use deepfake voice and face technology to impersonate licensed immigration attorneys…

Crime Problem · Dallas, TX

Handcuffed Suspect Slips Cuffs, Steals Dallas Police Cruiser With Officer Trapped in the Back Seat.

Stacey Huffman, 37, slipped her left handcuff, climbed from the rear of a Dallas PD cruiser to the…