A Massachusetts woman killed in the deadly Virginia charter bus crash told a friend she was looking forward to her Florida vacation and promised to call her when she arrived.
Priscilla R. Mafalda, 25, the fifth victim identified in the fatal crash on I-95 near Quantico on Friday, texted her work friend Thaiz Ramos about her excitement to be heading down to the Sunshine State the day before the tragedy, the Boston Globe reported.
“Friend, I’m very tired, but thank God I’m finally taking some vacation time. I’m going to Florida,” Mafalda wrote to Ramos.
Ramos shared that Mafalda had planned to call her when she arrived in Florida.
“I am still waiting for that call,” her heartbroken friend told the outlet. “Part of me still cannot believe she is gone.”
Ramos said she had worked with Mafalda at a house cleaning company in Worcester for years and called her “one of the kindest and hardest-working people I have ever known.”
Her boss, Monique Almeida, said she considered the 25-year-old as far more than just a worker.
“In the year she worked with us, she became much more than a coworker!!! I will always remember her beautiful smile, her kindness, and the way she made people feel comfortable and cared for,” Almeida told WHDH.
Another coworker said, “She leaves behind wonderful memories, an example of kindness, dedication, and love, and a lasting impact on all of us who were blessed to know her.”
Mafalda was born in Inhapim, Brazil, before moving to Massachusetts.
A GoFundMe to bring Mafalda home to Brazil for burial had already topped $21,000 as of Tuesday morning.
She and her husband, Igor Ernesto, were on their way to a long-awaited vacation when the passenger bus failed to slow for traffic and slammed into their Chevrolet Suburban near a highway work zone Friday at around 2:30 a.m.
Ernesto survived but sustained serious injuries and remains hospitalized, WHDH reported.
The crash also killed a Massachusetts family of four — Dmitri Doncev, 45, his wife Ecterina, 44, their 13-year-old daughter Emily and 7-year-old son Mark — all headed to a wedding.
Nearly 50 others were rushed to hospitals in the chaos.
Virginia State Police announced Saturday that the bus driver, 48-year-old Jing S. Dong, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges likely in the wreck.
Dong, a Chinese immigrant and a US citizen living in Staten Island, received his commercial driver’s license from New York State in 2024.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Dong does not speak English, prompting an NTSB investigation into the driver’s language proficiency.
The bus was traveling from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Survivors described scenes of chaos in the immediate aftermath.
“It was horrible. It was just like blood everywhere, it was people holding their head. Their heads were bleeding,” passenger Wayne Tobin, who was on his way to his mother’s funeral when the crash occurred, told WUSA9.
Another passenger, identified only as Judy, said she awoke to screaming and broken glass as the bus overturned, and that a fellow passenger broke a window to help evacuate those on board.
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