NEW YORK, NY — A tour bus driver has been arrested on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges stemming from a rollover crash that killed five people on Interstate 90 last summer.
Bin Shao, 56, of Flushing, was arrested Feb. 11 by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Violent Felony Warrant in Troop NYC.
Shao faces five counts of second-degree manslaughter, a class C felony, and five counts of criminally negligent homicide, a class E felony.
He was arraigned Feb. 13 on a sealed indictment and remanded to the Genesee County Jail on $100,000 bail, $200,000 bond, and $400,000 partially secured bond.
The charges stem from an Aug. 22 crash at 12:20 p.m. on Interstate 90 eastbound between exits 48A and 49 in the town of Pembroke, Genesee County.
Troopers from SP Buffalo, Troop T responded to the scene.
Investigation determined that a 2005 Van Hool Bus and Coach tour bus owned by M&Y Tour Inc. of Staten Island was traveling eastbound on I-90 from Niagara Falls to New York City.
The bus exited the roadway into the median then abruptly corrected, causing the bus to overturn and roll off the I-90 on the south embankment.
Multiple passengers were ejected and trapped, with five deceased at the scene.
Forty-nine passengers were taken to multiple hospitals including Erie County Medical Center, Strong Memorial Hospital, Millard Fillmore Suburban, Buffalo General Hospital, Oishei Children’s Hospital and United Memorial Medical Center.
Approximately 319 first responders assisted on scene including Mercy Flight, EMS and local, state and county police departments.
The bus had a total of 54 occupants including Shao.
He had no signs of impairment, and the tour bus had no preliminary mechanical failure.
The five deceased were Shankar Kumar Jha, 65, of Madhu Bani, India; Pinki Changrani, 60, of East Brunswick, New Jersey; Xie Hongzhuo, 22, of Beijing, China, a Columbia University student; Zhang Xiaolan, 55, of Jersey City, New Jersey; and Jian Mingli, 56, of Jersey City, New Jersey.
