Federal investigators examine bus operator ties after Virginia crash that killed five

A bus operated by E&P Travel Inc. struck stopped vehicles at a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, on May 29, killing five people and injuring dozens. The same company was involved in a similar incident in North Carolina in 2024 that injured nine.

Federal authorities are examining whether E&P Travel is connected to more than a dozen current and former bus companies in the Northeast. Investigators are looking into a pattern in which carriers under scrutiny form new companies that operate from the same locations with the same personnel and equipment.

Company records and violations E&P Travel was incorporated in North Carolina in November 2023. Federal records show the company received three citations in two years for speeding 15 miles per hour or more over the limit and one citation for a driver who failed an English proficiency test.

The driver in the May 29 crash faces five felony involuntary manslaughter charges. E&P Travel held a satisfactory safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as of April. The agency is working with other federal offices on the investigation.

Links to prior operators CBS News found that names associated with E&P Travel also appear in records for Super Bus Inc. , a Massachusetts company ordered shut down in 2017. Regulators had cited Pandora for repeated speeding violations and failure to correct unsafe driving practices.

Pandora reached a settlement with regulators in 2014 but was later found to have continued operating in violation of that agreement. An FMCSA inspector wrote that the company failed to monitor drivers despite knowledge of repeated speed-limit violations.