The bus driver who crashed in Queens on Monday morning and killed three people, including himself, had his license suspended two years ago after driving drunk and crashing into three people in Connecticut.
Raymond Mong, 48, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash when he caused the accident with his own car in 2015.
The Dahlia Group driver was working as a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus driver, sources said to the New York Daily News.
Raymond Mong, 48, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash when he caused the accident with his own car in 2015
Three people were killed and 15 others were injured on Monday when A MTA bus and a Mong collided in Queens, New York
The Connecticut state Department of Motor Vehicles notified the New York DMV, who passed along the info to the MTA after he was arrested.
Mong was fired in 2015, according to MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan.
He filed a grievance that was handled in arbitration, according to a source. The grievance was denied in June.
It was unknown when Mong began working for the new bus company. He had an appeal left, scheduled for October.
Firefighters rushed to the scene of the crash that occurred in the neighborhood of Flushing around 6.15am
Police records from Connecticut state show that Mong was driving a 2002 Honda Acura and rear ended 2004 Chevy Tahoe on the Exit 51 off-ramp from I-95 in New Haven on April 10, 2015.
Police records from Connecticut state show that Mong – who worked for MTA at the time -was driving a 2002 Honda Acura and rear ended 2004 Chevy Tahoe on the Exit 51 off-ramp from I-95 in New Haven on April 10, 2015
Their collision caused the Tahoe to hit a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, a 22-year-old woman driving her mother’s car, was driving.
Mong fled the scene and had his wife riding with him. State police and New Haven police tracked him down and arrested him.
Barbara Wynne, the mother of Alexandra Wynne, remembered the call from her young daughter.
‘I remember her calling me up and being upset at being hit and the driver took off. She got banged up,’ Wynne said.
‘He was driving really erratically and he hit her and thank God she wasn’t severely injured.
It was unknown when Mong began working for the new bus company after he was fired from MTA in 2015. He had an appeal left, scheduled for October
‘I don’t know why they would let someone like that drive a bus.’
He was charged with drunken driving and leaving the scene, among others.
Mong also didn’t have proper insurance and was driving erratically while illegally tailgating.
Three people suffered minor injuries.
Mong was sentenced on Oct. 20, 2015 and ordered to serve 18 months’ probation, temporarily surrender his license and pay a $500 fine, according to his lawyer.
Mong’s Connecticut license was restored on Feb. 23, 2016, a source said.
Three people were killed and 15 others were injured on Monday when A MTA bus and a Mong collided in Queens, New York.
Firefighters rushed to the scene of the crash that occurred in the neighborhood of Flushing around 6.15am.
An MTA spokesman said the Q20 bus was making a right turn on Northern Boulevard when the private bus, run by Flushing-based Dahlia Travel and Tours, struck it and crashed into a row of storefronts.
One victim, pinned under the bus, died at the scene. Two others, among seven who were critically injured, died at the hospital. The dead have been identified as Mong, 48; Gregory Liljefors, 55; and Henry Wdowiak, 68.