A 15th bus passenger died this morning as a result of the injuries sustained in Saturday’s tragic crash in the Bronx, as more details emerged about the driver of the doomed casino bus, authorities said.
The victim, a 70-year-old man who was not identified by name, died at 7:15 a.m. at St. Barnabas Hospital.
None of the other 14 other victims have been identified.
Federal investigators, meanwhile, have zeroed in on the bus driver, as his excuse for the deadly Bronx crash appeared to fall apart.
Ophadell Williams — who was behind the wheel of the World Wide Tours bus that crashed Saturday at 5:30 a.m. on its way home from Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun early Saturday — had told authorities that he was “clipped” by a tractor-trailer before the crash.
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But law-enforcement sources told The Post that investigators had spoken with the trucker, who denied the bus driver’s version of what happened.
The bus slammed into a sign pole that sheared it end to end.
The Medical Examiner’s office said the fatalities — nine men and six women — all died of blunt force trauma.
Williams was hospitalized after the crash and later released.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said it will analyze footage from the camera that faced passengers and will also examine an engine control module that may indicate how fast the bus was going at the time of the crash.
“What we need to do . . . is to find out what the driver was doing 72 hours before the crash,” NTSB Vice-Chairman Christopher Hart said during a news conference on Sunday.
This comes as it was revealed today that Williams has four prior arrests.
On June 4, 2003, he was charged with unlawful possession of radio devices, aggravated unlicensed operator and for driving with a suspended license, according to his arrest record.
Williams, 40, had a New York State bus driver’s license.
But Williams, who lives in Brooklyn, has also been arrested for fare evasion in 1987, manslaughter in 1990 and grand larceny in 1997, according to records.
Probers also found no marks on the truck to verify any contact with the bus, the sources said.
In addition, another driver of a car in front of the bus said the bus driver was “all over the road,” a source said.
Federal records have shown that World Wide buses were inspected 26 times over the last two years, with five violations related to fatigued driving issued in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
There were two crashes with injuries — on Oct. 24, 2009, in Westchester and last June in Perth Amboy, NJ, with one person injured in each. World Wide had no serious violations over the last 24 months.
This afternoon, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nydia Velazquez called on the NTSB to investigate safety regulations that govern the discount tour bus industry.
“Saturday morning’s crash was a heartbreaking tragedy and requires us to look closely at the safety regulations in place for the discount tour bus industry,” said Schumer (D-NY). “While it’s vital we get to the bottom of what caused Saturday’s crash, we must make sure that the regulations that govern the overall safety of this industry are effective and being followed by operators.”
Velazquez (D-NY) said “low-cost intercity bus travel industry along the Northeast Corridor has expanded rapidly in recent years and it appears safety regulations haven’t kept pace.
“There needs to be a thorough, extensive review of all rules governing these bus operators, so we ensure tragedies like the one on Saturday don’t happen again.”