Queens driver Kin Yiu Cheung charged with reckless driving in Virginia bus crash

A Queens man was asleep at the wheel of a New York-bound bus that skidded off the highway in Virginia early Tuesday, killing four passengers and badly injuring scores more, police said.

Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, was charged with reckless driving in connection with the crash that left a motor coach flipped over on its roof and trapped passengers inside screaming for help.

The Flushing man was employed by the Sky Express Bus Company, a problem plagued business based in North Carolina.

"The driver was fatigued when he ran off the right side of the road," Sgt. Thomas Molnar of the Virginia State Police said.

Cheung was being held on $3,000 bond and cooperating with investigators, Molnar said.

The early moing accident paralyzed northbound traffic on Interstate 95 for hours as rescue crews raced to the scene and removed the victims.

The Sky Express Bus, which left Greensboro, N.C. at 10:30 p.m. Monday, was carrying 59 passengers when it strayed off a highway and hit an embankment around 5 a.m. The crash was about 30 miles north of Richmond, Va.

Cheung, who had a seat belt, suffered only a few bump and bruises.

Meanwhile, the injured passengers - some of them in critical condition - were taken to Richmond and Fredericksburg-area hospitals.

Sky Express has an abysmal safety record, with four previous crashes - including one that resulted in a fatality, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records.

Sky Express has been the subject of four compliance investigations since 2008, the records show. The bus company was cited for 46 violations related to fatigued driving, including three that were classified as serious, in the past two years.

Their drivers have also been cited for 17 unsafe-driving violations, including eight speeding violations since 2009.

Of all the motor coach companies recently surveyed by the feds, Sky Express had the worst score (99.7%) in the "driver fitness" category and eaed lousy scores for fatigued drivers (86.2%) and overall unsafe driving (62.9%).

Sky Express's New York-based attoey, Ruth Yang, referred reporters to a company spokeswoman who did not retu emails for comment.

The company, which has 34 buses and employs 53 drivers, runs three buses daily from Charlotte to Chinatown, leaving at 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

"I'm just happy I wasn't on that bus," said Cristal Rivera, 22, a mother of three from Long Island, who retued on an earlier Sky Express bus after visiting pals in Charlotte. "That could've been me. Being a passenger on one of those buses is scary."

There has been more attention on bus safety following a March 12 accident in the Bronx when a motor coach retuing from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut toppled off an elevated highway and hit a utility pole, peeling off the roof and killing 15 people.

Following that tragedy, the feds did nearly 2,800 spot safety checks of passenger buses across the country from March 28 through April 6 - and yanked about 10% of the vehicles or drivers off the road.

In the wake of the tragic Virginia bus crash, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Councilmember Margaret Chin - all Democrats who represent Chinatown - are proposing legislation that would regulate intercity buses.