WTF! DRIVER IN FATAL BRONX CRASH THAT KILLED 15 PEOPLE WAS A MURDERER!

The bus driver in the horrific Bronx crash had two criminal convictions: for stabbing a man to death and stealing from the Police Athletic League.

Ophadell Williams' troubling history emerged Monday as the toll from Saturday's accident rose to 15 with the death of a 70-year-old man.

Williams shouldn't even have been at the wheel - his driving privileges were suspended after he ignored tickets for speeding and driving without a license in 1995, The Associated Press reported.

Williams, of Brooklyn, is expected to speak to investigators Tuesday. His past prompted Gov. Cuomo to order the state inspector general to investigate how he "was able to obtain and retain a commercial driver's license."

His rap sheet also raised questions about what kind of background check he got before being hired by the World Wide Travel bus line. Officials said Williams, "in concert with other people," fatally stabbed a man in Brooklyn in 1990 - when he went by the name Eric Williams. He served two years in prison for manslaughter.

A source said Williams was arrested again in 1997 for forging a PAL check for $83,905. Convicted of grand larceny, he was imprisoned from 1998 to 2002.

"How could he have such an important job, taking people's lives in his hands?" said Patrick Wang, whose brother-in-law Michael Leh, 66, of Brooklyn, was killed in the crash.

A tearful Ling Chow, 57, of Chinatown, said her parents, Kam Ming Eng, 81, and Yuk Chun Eng, 78, of Bellmore, L.I., lost their lives too soon. "They were waiting for great-grandchildren," she said.

Kerlyne Innocent, 32, of Brooklyn, Williams' co-defendant in the PAL ripoff, called him "the Devil."

Innocent, an ex-PAL worker, said Williams, 40, told her he was a cop and coaxed her into sneaking him blank PAL checks.

"I only know him for who he was at that time, a liar, a manipulator and impersonator; everything bad, nothing good," said Innocent, who received five years' probation for her role in the scam.

Williams initially told cops he lost control of the bus on Interstate 95 after a big rig sideswiped him. Investigators have found no credible evidence backing his story. Passengers told cops Williams nodded off at the wheel several times right before the bus careened out of control at 5:35 a.m.

The coach, carrying 32 passengers back to Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, toppled and skidded into a freeway signpost.

Authorities were trying to identify two fatalities and one man in critical condition.

In addition to Leh, a retired grocery manager, and the Engs, the other victims were identified as May Lin Wong and her husband, Ock Thling Wong, 83, of Chinatown; Bing Fong Lee of Brooklyn; Miguel Aquino, 55; Jose Garcia; Don Lee, 76; Biqin Mei; Ninh Tran; Yang Xian, and Jian Hua Wang, 40.

Six passengers were in critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, with four of them on respirators.



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