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A passenger bus crashed into a line of vehicles that were slowing for a highway work zone on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday, killing five people and sending dozens to the hospital, authorities said.
The crash occurred at approximately 2:35 a.m. on southbound I-95 in Stafford County, near Quantico. The Virginia State Police released a preliminary account stating that traffic was slowing for an upcoming construction area when a bus failed to decelerate and struck six vehicles in the queue.
State police confirmed that all five people who died were riding in the private vehicles hit by the bus. The impact of the collision sent 44 people to hospitals in the region, including three patients who were admitted in critical condition.
Police said there were approximately 34 passengers aboard the bus at the time of the crash. None of the fatalities were reported on the bus itself, according to the initial police statement.
Emergency responders from multiple agencies converged on the southbound lanes in the early morning hours, transporting the injured to several medical centers across Stafford and Prince William counties.
“We’ve got patients in multiple hospitals. We’ve got the driver at a hospital here,” said Peyton Vogel, a Federal Transit Administration spokesperson who was on the scene. Vogel described the devastation as overwhelming for first responders and investigators. “I’ve got to say, this is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever seen. Absolutely tragic.”
State police have not yet released the identities of the five deceased or the specific cause of the bus’s failure to slow down. The highway was closed to allow investigators to map the crash site, measure skid marks, and interview surviving passengers.
The crash comes as the warm weather travel season ramps up, bringing heavier volumes of passenger buses and commercial traffic to the heavily traveled I-95 corridor. The National Transportation Safety Board typically monitors crashes of this scale to determine if a federal investigation is warranted, though it has not yet announced whether it will dispatch a team to Virginia.
As of Friday morning, investigators continued to comb through the wreckage while local hospitals treated the injured. The cause of the crash remains under active review, and authorities urged travelers in the area to anticipate lingering delays as crews clear the damaged vehicles and reopen the southbound lanes.