GREENFIELD — Friends of the Doncev family said they are still struggling to accept that the family is dead after a multi-vehicle crash that killed five people and injured 44 others early Friday morning in Virginia. But they say they are finding comfort in knowing the family is still together.
“It’s painful for all of us, but we know they’re in heaven. This brings us peace, knowing they’re in heaven together,” Ana Cojan, a friend of the family, said through an interpreter. “For us, it is a joy, because they are together. It’s painful, but we know because of their faith they are with God.”
The four members of the Doncev family — 45-year-old Dmitri, 44-year-old Ecaterina, and their children, 13-year-old Emily and 7-year-old Mark — died when their SUV was struck by a bus driver on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, about 2 miles from the exit for Quantico. The family had been traveling south to Dmitri’s niece’s wedding in South Carolina when, at approximately 2:35 a.m., a bus operated by E&P Travel failed to slow for traffic in a work zone and crashed into a Chevrolet Suburban driven by 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda of Worcester. Mafalda’s Suburban was then forced into the Doncev family’s Acura SUV and other vehicles. Mafalda was also killed in the crash.
Carolina Bublik, a relative of the Doncevs, told the Associated Press the wedding had gone on as scheduled on Sunday, but had included time to mourn the lost family members. She said the Doncevs had been caravanning to the wedding alongside Dmitri’s brother Iuri Doncev, but at some point during the journey, the two vehicles were separated.
“At some point they ended up getting separated,” Bublik said. “Dmitri said, ‘You go ahead. I’ll catch up later.’ It was a big shock when Iuri arrived at the house. Dmitri should have arrived around the same time. When his car did not show up, and he wasn’t picking up the phone — that’s when the family started panicking.”
Cojan joined other family friends, Lidia Olaru and Maria Placinta, in bringing flowers to the Doncev family home on Willow Street in Greenfield. Since the crash on Friday, the front steps of the home have been filling up with dozens of flowers, and messages from neighbors saying they will miss seeing Mark riding his bike and Dmitri working on his cars in the driveway, among others.
Neighbor Margo Shea said the first flowers appeared early Saturday morning, and continued to appear, along with balloons, candles and a violinist, throughout the weekend as more people came to pay their respects. She said the neighborhood has been working to keep the flowers watered and candles lit so the front steps can continue to serve as a place for people to mourn, and so it is in good condition when family members return.
“We’ve been watching as the memorial has grown and people have come, sometimes more than once, particularly Emily’s friends who came together as a group, and then some later came with their moms bringing flowers,” Shea said. “We know Dmitri’s brother and the family are going to come home at some point. With the memorial, we want to show that in its own quiet way, Greenfield is mourning with them.”
Shea said the family was deeply rooted in family and faith, and their death was a “huge, huge loss.”
“They were young,” Olaru said. “They were very dedicated, very strong. … They were just wonderful people.”
Olaru shared that Dmitri and Ecaterina came to America from Moldova, and settled in Greenfield, where other family members already lived. Olaru said the couple had prayed for years for children, and were blessed with Emily, and later on Mark, who was born premature and held in the hospital for a few months.
Olaru said Ecaterina was a hairdresser and seamstress who would cut hair in her house and had helped her with a dress for her daughter’s wedding. She added that Ecaterina was always helping at the children’s school, Providence Christian Academy; the Providence Moldovan Baptist Church, which is associated with the school; and the Greenfield Russian Baptist Church, which the family attended. Dmitri, Olaru said, worked as a registered nurse in Holyoke Medical Center’s Mental Health Unit, and was also dedicated to helping people.
News of the tragedy has prompted community members to start raising money through a GoFundMe at tinyurl.com/DoncevFamily to cover the costs of transporting the family back to Greenfield and for funeral expenses. As of Monday afternoon, community members had already raised more than $74,000, surpassing a $50,000 goal with 645 donations.
Additionally, Freedom Cafe in Greenfield shared on social media that on Thursday, June 4, the cafe will be donating all proceeds from the day to support the family during this time, and will be collecting additional donations from patrons.
Bus driver arrested
In a statement, Eric Olsen, attorney for Stafford County, Virginia, said the driver of the bus, Jins S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, was injured in the crash and was arrested while in the hospital on Saturday. He faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, pending additional charges as the investigation continues, and will make his first court appearance after he is released from the hospital.
“The investigation is ongoing, but evidence gathered since the crash has established that a tour bus, traveling southbound at a high rate of speed, struck one or more vehicles that were moving slowly through a work zone, causing a chain-reaction crash involving at least eight vehicles,” Olsen said. “Even as the Virginia State Police continues to conduct a complex investigation, I have determined that probable cause presently exists to establish that the driver of the tour bus caused this crash and, at the time of the crash, he was driving in a criminally negligent manner.”
Olsen said that while Dong remains in the hospital with injuries, he is in custody and is being held without bond on two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, which carry a maximum prison time of 10 years for each count.
While the investigation is ongoing, National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman told the Associated Press that the bus, operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, was traveling at a high rate of speed.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said.
Chapman added that the driver’s language proficiency would be looked at as part of the investigation. In a post on X, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote that Dong had received his commercial driver’s license from New York State in 2024. According to Duffy, Dong is a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who did not speak English.
“Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states accountable, enforcing the rules of the road and cracking down on drivers who can’t speak English,” Duffy wrote. “If you can’t be properly trained, read our road signs or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus.”
In a statement, Virginia State Police said Dong’s actions prior to the crash are also being investigated.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
