Four of the five people who died in a bus crash in Virginia were members of a Massachusetts family traveling to a family wedding. They had filled their car with desserts for the celebration. Although the wedding will proceed on Sunday in South Carolina, it will also serve as a moment to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their children, Emily and Mark.
Carolina Bublik, a relative, shared her grief on Saturday. ‘A son, a father — the entire family — all whom we have cherished,’ she said.
The Doncev family lost their lives early Friday when a passenger bus collided with vehicles that had slowed down due to road repairs on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia. A fifth casualty, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, perished in an SUV. Authorities reported additional injuries, with one person in critical condition, though most have been released from the hospital, according to Mary Washington Healthcare.
A member of the National Transportation Safety Board was scheduled to brief reporters about the investigation on Saturday.
The bus was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. The Virginia State Police have identified the driver as Jing S. Dong, age 48, from Staten Island, New York.
Dmitri, aged 45, and Ecaterina, aged 44, moved to the United States from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Dmitri worked as a nurse at Holyoke Medical Center, while Ecaterina was a stylist who spent days preparing desserts for the family wedding.
Dmitri and his brother Iuri attempted to stay together as they traveled in separate vehicles toward South Carolina. ‘At some point, they ended up separated,’ Bublik recounted. ‘Dmitri told him, “You go ahead, I’ll catch up later.” It was a tremendous shock when Iuri arrived at the house. Dmitri should have arrived around the same time. When his car didn’t show up and he didn’t answer his phone, the family began to panic.’
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