Robert Kalfus
Ophadell Williams, right, is seen with his lawyer Patrick Bruno.
A Chinatown bus driver was cleared of all counts of manslaughter for his role in a horrific crash that killed 15 passengers in The Bronx last year.
This morning’s surprising verdict found Ophadell Williams guilty of only one minor count of aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, after he’d been facing up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Williams had claimed that he lost control of the bus, which was headed into the city from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut on March 12, 2011, after a tractor-trailer cut him off.
The top of the bus was sheared open after it struck a pole on the side of the roadway — killing 15 and injuring 18 others.
Prosecutors insisted Williams was so recklessly tired and sleep deprived that he might as well have been drunk.
Williams — an ex-con with a checkered driving record — tested clean for drugs and alcohol after the crash of his World Wide Travel bus.
Probers said the bus had been traveling at 78 mph in a 50 mph zone just moments before the crash.
Bus driver in deadly Bronx crash found not guilty of manslaughter, negligent homicide
This article
Bus driver in deadly Bronx crash found not guilty of manslaughter, negligent homicide
can be opened in url
http://newstercollide.blogspot.com/2012/12/bus-driver-in-deadly-bronx-crash-found.html
Bus driver in deadly Bronx crash found not guilty of manslaughter, negligent homicide
