Police: 3rd passenger hurt in US bus crash last month has died; driver faces charges

A third passenger injured in a tour bus crash last month in northern Delaware died Thursday morning, police said.

Jyostina Poojari, 43, of Mumbai, India, died at Christiana Hospital in Newark, state police Sgt. Paul G. Shavack said in an email. She was taken there after the Sept. 21 crash.

The driver, Jinli Zhao, was charged with two counts of the operation of a vehicle causing death of another person. A preliminary hearing for Zhao was rescheduled this week after Zhao, who speaks little English, couldn’t answer questions at a court appearance.

Shavack said in the news release that more charges will likely be filed as the investigation continues.

Forty-nine passengers were on the bus as it drove onto a curved exit ramp and overturned. The bus slid on its roof down a grass embankment and came to rest on its left side, police said.

Hua’y Chen, a 54-year-old woman from New York City, was found under the bus and pronounced dead at the scene. Idil Bahsi, a 30-year-old woman from Istanbul, Turkey, was taken to a hospital and died that night.

Shavack told The Associated Press Thursday that six passengers remained hospitalized with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening.

Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said a preliminary report on the crash was still being compiled.