Tour Bus Driver Races Through Queens Intersection, Hits a MTA Bus, Killing 3

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 09-19-2017, 02:48 AM

The driver of the tour bus that crashed in Queens early Monday, killing himself and two others, had his license suspended two years ago after he drove drunk and crashed into three people in Connecticut.

Dahlia Group driver Raymond Mong, 48, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash, which he caused with his personal car in 2015, records show.

Mong was working at the time as an Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus driver, sources say.

After he was arrested, the Connecticut state Department of Motor Vehicles notified the New York DMV, which passed along the info to the MTA.

Mong was fired in 2015 for cause, according to MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan. He filed a grievance that was handled in arbitration, according to a source. In June, his grievance was denied.

It was unclear Monday when Mong began working for Dahlia. He had an appeal left, scheduled for October.

Connecticut state police records show Mong, driving a 2002 Honda Acura, rear-ended a 2004 Chevy Tahoe on the Exit 51 off-ramp from I-95 in New Haven on April 10, 2015.

The impact pushed the Tahoe into a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta being driven by a 22-year-old woman.

Mong, who was with his wife at the time, panicked and fled the scene. State police and New Haven police tracked him down and arrested him.

Barbara Wynne, the mother of Alexandra Wynne, the Jetta driver, recalled the emotional call from her daughter shortly after the rear-end collision.

“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.

“I don’t know why they would let someone like that drive a bus,” she added.

Cops slapped him with a range of charges in addition to drunken driving and leaving the scene. He didn’t have the proper insurance, was illegally tailgating and driving erratically, records show.

Three people suffered minor injuries.

Mong was sentenced on Oct. 20, 2015. He was ordered to serve 18 months’ probation, temporarily surrender his license and pay a $500 fine, according to his lawyer.

His Connecticut license was restored on Feb. 23, 2016, a source said.

What a mong.

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A convicted drunken driver barreling down a Queens thoroughfare in a charter bus owned by a company with a record of safety violations blew a red light and plowed into the back of a city bus — killing himself and two other people.

The deadly smashup shattered the predawn calm on Northern Blvd. in Flushing, destroying a restaurant, leaving passengers and pedestrians bloody and panicked and turning the area near Main St. into a disaster scene.

Henry Wdowiak, 68, of Flushing, was one of the three victims. The Polish immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1993 after serving as a military pilot was fatally pinned by one of the buses, authorities said.

His devastated wife said Wdowiak was on the street because he had just started a fitness regimen that included walking as much as possible.

“It was his first day walking,” said Helina Kurpiewska, 64. “My son had to tell me what happened. I’m in shock ... I still expect him to come home. I can’t believe it.”

Kurpiewska, a hotel housekeeper, married Wdowiak 10 years ago and called him a “great family man.”

Wdowiak worked as a floor maintenance man for a real estate company and was on his way to one of the company’s buildings when he was killed, she said.

Six of the people who were hurt were listed in critical condition Monday night. Mayor de Blasio said several victims were fighting for their lives.

The tour bus driver, Raymond Mong, 49, died at Elmhurst Hospital Center.