A peaceful overnight drive turned into a tragedy that shook two Massachusetts communities when a passenger bus failed to slow for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, in the early hours of Friday, May 29, killing five people, all from the Bay State.
Priscilla Ramos Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, was identified over the weekend as the fifth person killed in the crash. She had been born in Inhapim, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and had built a life for herself in Massachusetts.
A close friend, Thaiz Ramos, told the Boston Globe that Mafalda had called her just days before, sounding tired but excited.
“Friend, I’m very tired, but thank God I’m finally taking some vacation time. I’m going to Florida,” she said. Ramos never received the promised call that she had arrived safely.
The bus struck the SUV driven by Mafalda, whose vehicle then hit an Acura carrying the Doncev family. Mafalda also died in the collision.
Her husband, Igor Ernesto, was also in the vehicle and was hospitalized. Friends quickly organized support through social media, urgently seeking Portuguese-speaking community members in the Stafford area to assist a relative of Igor’s who was left stranded and alone at the scene.
A Family Headed to a Celebration That Became a Funeral
Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, from Greenfield, Massachusetts, were traveling to a family wedding in South Carolina. Ecaterina had spent days preparing homemade desserts for the celebration.
Dmitri, 45, was a nurse at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina, 44, was a hairstylist. The couple had emigrated from the Republic of Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield.
The family wedding still went forward on Sunday in South Carolina, but it became equally a time to mourn.
“A son, a father, the whole family, everyone that has been dear to us,” said Carolina Bublik, Dmitri’s niece.
Dmitri had been traveling in convoy with his brother Iuri, but the two vehicles became separated.
When Dmitri’s car never arrived, the family began to panic. Providence Christian Academy in Greenfield, where Emily and Mark attended school, released a statement saying the family was “a cherished part of our school community.”
Driver Charged, Federal Investigation Underway
The bus driver, Jing Sheng Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, was arrested at a Virginia hospital on Saturday and charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges pending.
He is being held without bond. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that Dong received his commercial driver’s license in 2024 and claimed that Dong, a naturalized citizen from China, did not speak English.
Under newly revised guidance, commercial drivers are required to demonstrate English-language proficiency, and thousands of drivers judged unable to do so have since been placed out of service.
The bus was operated by E&P Travel of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and was transporting passengers from New York to North Carolina.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting a parallel investigation. In total, 44 people were taken to area hospitals, three of them with critical injuries.
Friends of Mafalda launched a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $18,000 to cover the costs of returning her body to Brazil for burial and to assist other victims in their recovery.
