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Federal regulators are examining safety practices at a Tennessee trucking company whose driver was jailed after a fiery crash June 30 that killed three people and shut down Interstate 40 in Durham for several hours.

And state traffic engineers say they’ll study the crash site for any improvements that could make the road safer for other drivers.

Ronald Eugene Graybeal, 50, a driver for Hawley Transport Services of Greeneville, Tenn., was charged with driving while impaired and three counts of felony death by vehicle. Troopers found marijuana, methadone and drug paraphernalia in his truck.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has begun a compliance review for Hawley, which has 10 tractor-trailers and employs 10 drivers. ... [MORE]

Virginia authorities haven't released names of four women who died Tuesday morning when their Sky Express bus overturned on Interstate 95, but a Nash County man says the victims included one of his eight family members who boarded the bus in Raleigh a few hours before the crash.

"One of them passed away,"  Gregory Torres of Bailey said this afternoon.

The Sky Express bus for New York's Chinatown started in Charlotte and made stops in Greensboro and Raleigh before the crash at 4:55 a.m. Tuesday on I-95 30 miles north of Richmond. Authorities blamed the crash on an exhausted bus driver. Virginia State Police officials withheld the names of the four women passengers who died, saying they had not finished notifying their closest relatives.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, citing the crash and Charlotte-based Sky Express's dismal driver-safety record, ordered Sky Express to halt operations Tuesday.

A federal order Tuesday evening that shut down Charlotte-based Sky Express Inc. came after a crash that killed four riders and injured more than 50 others -- a crash that appeared horribly consistent with Sky Express's documented history of driver-safety violations. (Read Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announcement.)

Inspectors for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration already had given Sky Express one of the nation's worst records for driver-safety violations. (See the FMCSA Safey Measurement System database with details of violations.) ... [MORE]

A Sky Express passenger from Raleigh was charged with obstructing justice at the scene of a bus crash that killed four other passengers on Interstate 95 in Richmond this morning, the Virginia State Police said.

Pavion R. O'Connor (right), 29, of Cane Garden Drive was being held in Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover County under $2,500 bond.

A Virginia State Police news release said:

Immediately following the crash, the individual insisted on standing in the I-95 travel lanes (which were still open with passing traffic) and taking photographs of the crash scene. For his safety and to prevent another crash or fatality from occuring, the troopers on-scene directed the man to move out of the travel lanes and to the side with the other passengers. The man repeatedly refused and struggled with the troopers as they tried to escort him to the side of the Interstate. He was subsequently charged for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest.

Federal safety inspection records show that Sky Express, a Charlotte bus company involved in a fatal Virginia crash this morning, has one of the nation's worst records for bus driver safety -- with dozens of speeding, fatigue and other safety violations over the past two years.

The bus with 58 passengers had stopped in Greensboro and Raleigh on its trip to New York City.

Virginia investigators say a sleepy Sky Express driver was at the wheel when the bus swerved off Interstate 95 about 30 miles north of Richmond, hit an embankment and overturned at 4:55 a.m. today. Four passengers died and more than 50 were sent to 11 area hospitals with injuries. (See photo gallery.)

"The driver was fatigued when he ran off the right side of the road," Sgt. Thomas Molnar of the Virginia State Police told reporters at the crash site. Driver Kin Yiu Cheng, 37, was charged with reckless driving. The victims' identities had not been releaed as of 5 p.m. today.

 ... [MORE]

State and federal authorities in Virginia are investigating the deaths of four passengers today in the crash of a Sky Express bus en route from North Carolina to New York.

We're reporting on this today. If you have ridden Sky Express buses in the past, or if you know any passengers on this bus, please contact Bruce Siceloff at The News & Observer: bruce.siceloff@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4527.