ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Investigators looking into a weekend tour bus crash in New York that killed 15 people are focusing on the driver, a man with a decades-old manslaughter conviction who was not supposed to be driving because he had not resolved several traffic tickets.
The bus driver, Ophadell Williams, was ticketed in 1995
The bus crash occurred Saturday as gamblers were returning to New York’s Chinatown neighborhood, in downtown Manhattan, after a few hours at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. The bus was sheared in half by a sign pole.
On Monday night, another company’s tour bus from Chinatown to Philadelphia crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike, killing the driver and a passenger. About 40 people were hospitalized.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they were looking at Mr. Williams‘ last 72 hours before the Saturday crash, checking the casino’s surveillance video.
“We want to know what he ate, what he drank and how much he slept,” NTSB Vice Chairman Christopher Hart said.
Investigators zeroed in on the 40-year-old Mr. Williams‘ record after his story that his tour bus was clipped by a tractor-trailer fell apart when passengers and witnesses said it never happened.
Investigators are trying to follow Mr. Williams‘ steps by matching Social Security numbers of traffic stops under different names, the officials said, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. Mr. Williams also had an incomplete log book, which is required for commercial drivers, the officials said.
The revelations about Mr. Williams, who has a 20-year-old manslaughter conviction, prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to launch a state investigation into how Mr. Williams was able to hold a valid commercial driver’s license at the time of Saturday’s crash.
Telephone calls to Mr. Williams‘ Brooklyn home were unanswered Monday. A spokesman for the bus company that employed him, World Wide Travel, declined to comment, on the instructions of federal investigators.
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