The driver of a bus that crashed and killed 15 people on a return trip to New York from a Connecticut casino in March has been indicted on multiple counts of manslaughter. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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The degree of the charges against the driver, Ophadell Williams, was unclear, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the indictment, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, had not yet been made public.
Sean H. Rooney, one of Mr. Williams’s lawyers, said a prosecutor notified him on Wednesday that his client had been indicted but was not informed of the charges because the indictment was still sealed. Mr. Williams planned to turn himself in on Thursday, Mr. Rooney said.
“An indictment is just one side of the story,†Mr. Rooney said. “It’s just the D.A.’s view on what happened, and it’s a completely one-sided story.â€
A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office said he was “not confirming or denying anything at this point.â€
The gruesome crash, which occurred on Interstate 95, prompted safety officials to re-examine the regulation of the discount tour-bus industry, which operates with scant oversight.
Lawyers for some of the surviving passengers said Mr. Williams had fallen asleep at the wheel shortly before the crash. That by itself would not be enough to charge him with manslaughter, legal experts have said.
But if investigators found that he had committed other dangerous driving acts, like driving after a long period without rest or speeding or weaving through traffic, that could be enough to warrant criminal charges, experts said.
Federal investigators have said that Mr. Williams was driving the bus at 78 miles per hour, the fastest it could go, within a minute of its flipping and sliding into a large metal stanchion that sliced through the bus. The speed limit where the bus crashed was 55 m.p.h.
Mr. Williams has denied falling asleep while driving, and has said that the accident was caused when a passing tractor-trailer clipped the bus, forcing him to veer off the road. Investigators found no evidence that the bus made contact with a tractor-trailer, according to a report they filed.
