A 43-year-old woman from Mumbai, India died due to injuries sustained in a bus crash that took place on the afternoon of Sept. 21, 2014. The victim, Jyostina Poojari, was being treated at Christiana Hospital Trauma Center for serious injuries that she sustained when the tour bus she was a passenger aboard crashed in New Castle, Delaware. This is the third fatality caused by the crash, as two other victims—Idil Bahsi, age 30, from Istanbul and Hua’y Chen, age 54, from New York City—died shortly after the accident took place.
The crash took place when the bus left the roadway of a highway exit ramp and overturned, then skidded on its roof down a grassy bank near the roadside before coming to a stop on its side. There were at least 48 passengers on board the bus at the time of the accident, all of whom were taken to various area hospitals for treatment of injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening. The driver of the bus, 56-year-old Jini Zhao, was also taken to a hospital for assessment and treatment, but is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries.
Police who are investigating the crash report that they suspect Zhao was navigating a turn at a dangerous rate of speed when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed, tumbling down the roadside embankment. State police continue to investigate the crash, but preliminary reports indicate that drugs and alcohol were not suspected of being contributing factors in the cause of the accident. Zhao is being charged with two counts of operation of a vehicle causing the death of another person. It is unclear at this time as to whether the death of Poojari will cause another charge to be raised against Zhao.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation of its own in the wake of the accident, and although preliminary findings are expected to be released in the coming weeks, the full investigation may take as long as a year or more to be completed. The tour bus was en route back to its starting point in New York following an excursion to tour of the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C.