School Bus Driver Charged in Fatal Crash With Landscaping Truck

HAYMARKET, Va. — A school bus driver has been charged in a crash that claimed the life of a landscaping worker here last week, police said.

The incident occurred around 8 a.m. on May 23 in Haymarket, a small town about 30 miles west of Arlington.

According to the Prince William County Police Department, a landscaping pickup truck with an attached trailer was stopped in the right travel lane of a road, with the workers preparing to mow and landscape a property. One of the workers, identified as 53-year-old Eusebio Joya Castro, was reportedly wearing a reflective safety vest and was setting up a sign near the rear of the truck.

Police said the investigation found that a school bus traveling in the same lane struck the truck and Castro from behind. The landscaping worker was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said that the driver of the landscaping truck was inside the vehicle at the time of the crash, and fire and rescue responders extricated him from the cab. A third worker was reportedly able to avoid being struck and was not injured.

The drivers of the pickup truck and the school bus were transported to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. There were no students on the school bus at the time of the crash.

The Prince William County Police Department said that based on the investigation and consultation with the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, school bus driver Sheli Cheru Paugh, 57, was determined to be at fault in the fatal crash. Paugh turned herself in to police on Friday without incident.

Paugh is charged with involuntary manslaughter. She was released on a $7,500 secured bond, with a court date set for Aug. 14.