WASHINGTON– Several people are injured and one fatality has been confirmed after a bus crashed and overturned on Interstate 95 just after Lorton Road in Fairfax County, Va., early Sunday morning.
Virginia State Police were called to the scene at 3:28 a.m. in response to a crash involving a small, 16-passenger shuttle bus in the southbound lanes of I-95, just south of Exit 163 for Lorton. Lanes began reopening around the accident scene at 5 a.m.
An America Transportation shuttle bus was traveling south on I-95 when, according to witnesses, a white, four-door passenger vehicle traveling at an extreme high rate of speed swerved into the bus’s travel lane. In order to avoid the car, the driver of the shuttle bus swerved to the right. The shuttle bus then ran off the right side of the road, struck the guardrail, and overturned. The white car fled the scene.
State police were able track down the white car to a residence in Dumfries, Va., thanks to witness information. A white Acura was located at a residence in the 16000 block of Gentle Wood Lane and its driver, Raphael Manuel Barrientos, 31, of Dumfries, Va., was taken into custody without incident.
Barrientos has been charged with one felony count of hit-and-run. He is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. Additional charges are pending consultation with the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
A total of 17 people – 16 passengers and the driver – were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment. All passengers are in their early 20s and from Prince William County.
Information about the injured:
- Two were flown from the scene to Inova Fairfax Hospital – one these two, David Alberto Sanchez, 24, of Woodbridge, Va., succumbed to his injuries later Sunday morning at the hospital; the second one is still being treated for life-threatening injuries.
- The driver and one other passenger are being treated for serious, but non-life threatening injuries.
- The remaining 13 passengers suffered minor injuries.
This is the second passenger bus accident in a week along a stretch of I-95 in Virginia.
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