NY prosecutors: Driver in fatal crash knew risks

NEW YORK (AP) — The driver at the helm of a tour bus that crashed in a horrific accident last year, killing 15 passengers, knew the risks of fatigue and drove anyway despite a serious lack of sleep, prosecutors said Thursday as his manslaughter trial began.

Ophadell Williams had years of experience driving a bus, and simply should’ve known better, Assistant District Attorney Gary Weil said.

“This crime didn’t have to happen,” he said. “This is not a driver who maybe gets too little sleep. This is a professional, responsible bus operator.”

The crash happened March 12, 2011, on Interstate 95 at daybreak as Williams was ferrying a busload of gamblers to Manhattan’s Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. The bus crashed just feet from a road sign that read: “Welcome to the Bronx.”

The victims were mostly Chinese men and women over the age of 40 who were regulars at casinos.

“At the scene lay 13 people in a makeshift morgue, covered up, pulled from the wreckage,” he said. “They died instantly, in a horrific crash caused by the reckless and criminally negligent behavior of that man — Ophadell Williams.”

Williams, dressed in a grey suit, mostly looked down and wrote on a yellow legal pad with a red pen while Weil spoke. Defense attorney Patrick Bruno said outside court that Williams was not fatigued.

“I sincerely believe that he had as much sleep as many other people routinely have,” he said.

Bruno will address the jurors later Thursday.