STORY: Five people were killed and more than 40 others injured, three critically, after a tour bus plowed into a sport utility vehicle early on Friday (May 29), triggering a fiery, chain-reaction crash on a U.S. highway in Northern Virginia, state police said.

A preliminary investigation showed that the bus driver failed to reduce speed as his motor coach was nearing slower-moving traffic in a construction zone along Interstate 95, a major north-south highway corridor in the region, police said.

As a result, the bus slammed into a Chevrolet Suburban, which was then forced into an Acura SUV and other vehicles, while the bus struck additional vehicles as well. The Acura caught fire, according to a state police press release.

The wreck occurred at about 2:35 a.m. EDT in the southbound lanes of I-95 in Stafford County, roughly 45 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

The bus, operated by North Carolina-based motor coach charter company E&P Travel, was carrying about 34 occupants, including the driver, from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Of the five fatalities, four were from the burning Acura - a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all of them from Greenfield, Massachusetts. The fifth person killed, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the Chevy Suburban hit by the bus, according to police.

About 44 other people injured in the crash, including the bus driver, were taken to area hospitals for treatment, three of them listed in critical condition, police said.

State police spokesperson Matthew Demlein said charges were pending against the bus driver in connection with the crash, but he declined to elaborate.

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SHOWS: STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 29, 2026) (ABC AFFILIATE WJLA - No use USA. No archive.)

1. VARIOUS OF TOUR BUS AFTER CHAIN REACTION CRASH

2. NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED CRASH, JUDY, WALKING

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED CRASH, JUDY, SAYING:

“I was treated, injury to my head, my left eye, my teeth, my legs, my neck. When the bus flipped, I was sitting in the second seat from the driver on the left side. When the bus flipped, it flipped me over, threw me up off my seat, and threw me on top of me in the glass.”

4. (MUTE) VARIOUS OF BUS BEING LIFTED

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED CRASH, JUDY, SAYING:

“It's a blessing to be here from that crash, I'm sorry that a lot of people lost their life, for the ones that was just injured and they're still here, it's a blessing, it's a blessing."

6. (MUTE) BUS BEING LIFTED