Patriot Pulse

Sean Duffy Warned New York Before the Horrific I-95 Bus Crash and Five People Just Paid the Price

Mike Kuhlman image via Shutterstock
Mike Kuhlman image via Shutterstock

A 7-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister burned to death on a Virginia highway Friday morning.

Sean Duffy had already told New York this was coming.

Now five people are dead – and the driver who killed them got his commercial license from the state that had been ignoring Duffy's warnings for months.

The Virginia Bus Crash That Killed Five

Just before 3 a.m., a motorcoach operated by E&P Travel barreled down Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia.

The bus never slowed down.

It slammed into stopped traffic in a highway work zone at full speed, triggering a chain-reaction crash that killed five people and sent 44 others to hospitals in Fredericksburg and Stafford – three of them in critical condition.

The dead included a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy traveling with their family from Massachusetts.

Their car caught fire after the impact.

A 45-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman – the children's parents, police confirmed – died with them.

A 25-year-old woman in the car immediately in front of the bus was also killed.

The driver, identified by authorities as 48-year-old Jing S. Dong of Staten Island, survived.

Charges are pending.

Local police confirmed what Duffy publicly disclosed within hours: Dong does not speak English.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen after emigrating from China.

New York State issued him a commercial driver's license in 2024.

Sean Duffy's CDL English Requirement Was Already the Law

This is not a surprise to anyone who has been watching Sean Duffy's war on rogue CDL licensing.

Federal law has always required commercial drivers to demonstrate sufficient English proficiency to read road signs, communicate with law enforcement, and operate safely.

For years, that law was ignored.

In May 2025, Duffy issued new guidance reinstating English Language Proficiency standards – rescinding an Obama-era policy that had deliberately relaxed enforcement.

In December 2025, a federal audit of New York's DMV found that 53% of the state's foreign commercial licenses – more than 17,000 out of 32,000 reviewed – were issued in violation of federal law.

Duffy called it a dereliction of duty by state leadership and threatened to pull $73 million in federal highway funding.

New York defended its practices and refused to conduct a comprehensive audit.

In February 2026, Duffy announced that all CDL testing nationwide would be conducted exclusively in English, closed more than 550 sham CDL training schools, and had 28,000 illegally issued licenses revoked.

New York was still resisting when this bus left Staten Island headed for North Carolina.

How New York Kept Issuing Illegal CDLs After Federal Warnings

New York's CDL problem runs deeper than bureaucratic negligence.

In October 2025, a 51-count indictment out of Long Island's Garden City DMV exposed a criminal scheme in which state employees were literally taking CDL exams for applicants – allowing people who never passed a test to walk out with commercial licenses.

Federal regulators had already established that at least 30 states issued CDLs to ineligible foreign drivers.

New York was the worst of them – by the federal government's own findings – and still refused to clean house.

Jing Dong received his license in 2024, precisely during the period the federal government was uncovering the full scope of New York's licensing failures.

"When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn't just a mistake – it is a dereliction of duty," Duffy said when the audit results were released.

New York heard that and did nothing meaningful.

New York Ignored Duffy and a Bus Driver Who Didn't Speak English Killed Five People

Duffy went on X Friday morning and didn't mince words.

"Local police confirm the driver of this motorcoach – a man from China who became a U.S. citizen – doesn't speak English," he wrote. "He received his commercial drivers license from New York State in 2024. Unacceptable."

He put New York on notice: federal investigators were already at the crash site, and the Transportation Department was pulling New York's licensing records, training files, and the driver's full history.

"Any company, trainer, or school that contributed to putting an unqualified driver on the road will face intense scrutiny," Duffy added.

He said what every person reading this is thinking: "If you can't be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus."

A Massachusetts family is burying two children this week because New York decided federal safety standards were optional.

Duffy warned them.

They ignored him.

Now five people are dead.

Sources:

  • Bill Melugin, "BREAKING: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reveals that the bus driver who caused a crash on I-95 in Virginia that killed five people," X/@BillMelugin_, May 29, 2026.
  • "Virginia bus crash that killed five involved driver who doesn't speak English, Sean Duffy says," Fox News, May 29, 2026.
  • "Bus driver in crash that killed 5, including 2 kids, was Chinese national who did not speak English, Sec. Duffy says," The Blaze, May 29, 2026.
  • "Duffy Marks One Year of Trump's Trucking Crackdown: 20,000 Unsafe Drivers Pulled Off the Road, 28,000 Illegal CDLs Revoked," Breitbart, May 1, 2026.
  • "Feds call out New York as 'worst offender' of illegal CDLs," FreightWaves, December 15, 2025.
  • "DOT Pulls $73M From New York Over Failure to Revoke Thousands of Questionable CDLs," Legal Insurrection, April 23, 2026.
  • "DMV Workers Indicted for Faking CDL Exams in Long Island," New York Inspector General, October 9, 2025.

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