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Sky Express Bus Driver Charged: Reckless Driving

By Stephanie Rabiner, Esq. on June 01, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Virginia police have arrested Kin Yiu Cheng, the Sky Express bus driver responsible for yesterday's passenger bus crash that has left four women dead and at least 54 other passengers injured.

Determining that driver fatigue was at least partially responsible for the deadly crash, prosecutors have charged Cheng with reckless driving.

He's lucky that he hasn't been charged with manslaughter.

According to some sources, Kin Yiu Cheng fell asleep at the wheel before veering off the I-95 early Tuesday morning. Having left North Carolina at 10:30 p.m., the Sky Express bus driver was headed for New York City.

In the wake of this horrible tragedy, it has come to the public's attention that Sky Express has one of the worst safety ratings of all passenger bus carriers, reports the Daily News. The company has been cited 46 times in the last two years for fatigued driving, and has received 17 other citations for unsafe driving.

Even though Sky Express has a duty to ensure that its drivers are acting safely, Kin Yiu Cheng also had a legal obligation to ensure that he complied with all safety regulations--especially those related to driver fatigue.

For this reason, he can be held liable for his actions under reckless driving statutes.

Though the law varies from state to state, reckless driving is usually defined as driving with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of others.

The bus driver willfully disregarded passenger safety when he allegedly failed to stop driving despite being overly tired.

Don't expect the charges against Kin Yiu Cheng to remain untouched. The Sky Express bus driver may also be criminally liable for involuntary manslaughter, which punishes reckless behavior that results in death.

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