It was a crime for a Chinatown-bus driver to get behind the wheel after he failed to get enough shut-eye the night before — which led to a horrific crash that killed 15 of his 32 passengers, Bronx prosecutors charged yesterday.
Ophadell Williams, 41, had been trained in the importance of getting enough sleep before going to work, Assistant DA Gary Weil said yesterday at the opening of Williams’ manslaughter trial in Bronx Supreme Court.
“He knew the risk of driving while fatigued, and he ignored it,” Weil said.
“His sleep deprivation was so severe, it affected his reflexes as if he were driving while intoxicated.
“This was no mere tragic accident, but a criminal act,” Weil said.
Williams — an ex-con whose disastrous driving record over 20 years included 18 license suspensions — tested clean for drugs and alcohol after the March 12, 2011, crash of his World Wide Travel bus on I-95.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation also mostly blamed the accident on Williams’ failure to get enough sleep in the days before.
The bus was headed back to Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut when it flipped onto its side and tore itself open against a signpost.
The signpost sliced off the top of the bus. One surviving passenger lost both his arms when he raised them in an attempt to protect his head, Weil said. At least one victim was decapitated, officials said at the time.
The prosecutor gave jurors a vivid description of the accident scene, describing how 13 of the victims who were killed instantly were laid out near the bus, their bodies covered with tarps.
Two other passengers died later in a hospital. Another 15 were injured.
“At no time did the defendant ever apply the brakes, not for a second. Not the brakes, not the gearshift — nothing,” Weil said.
“The evidence will show that he fell asleep or was so fatigued that he could no longer concentrate.”
Defense lawyer Patrick Bruno told the jurors that the crash happened when Williams swerved the bus after he was cut off by a passing tractor-trailer.
He claimed that the DA’s case is weak, and that Williams had “as much sleep as many other people routinely have.”
“He sits here accused of doing his job,” Bruno said.