THE BRONX — The Chinatown bus driver involved in one of the city’s deadliest crashes wants to get back behind the wheel.
Ophadell Williams, who crashed a bus in The Bronx in 2011, killing 15 passengers, has gone to court to have his driver’s license reinstated, claiming the state Department of Motor Vehicles can’t blame him for the horrifying wreck.
Williams, 45, says in a Feb. 29 petition in Brooklyn Supreme Court that the DMV wrongfully used the crash as a reason to deny his request to restore his license — despite a jury acquitting him of criminal charges.
“The Department continues to jeopardize [Williams] for an accident that the law has declared not to be his fault,” the petition says. “In other words, he is to be held blameless for this tragic and unfortunate accident.”
Williams, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, is asking a judge to either give him a new administrative hearing with the DMV or grant him his license. He claims that without his license, he can’t support his family.
“Ophadell Williams is a husband, the father of several children, a grandfather and is the sole breadwinner for his family,” the petition says. “It cannot be stressed how the number of years pending the criminal charges affected his livelihood.”
"Moreover, when balanced against the loss of life that occurred as a result of this tragedy, [Williams] considers himself fortunate by comparison and again offers feelings of remorse and deepest sympathy and regrets for the accident," the petition says.
Williams, who worked for World Wide Tours, was operating a bus with 32 passengers on March 12, 2011, when it struck a guardrail on Interstate 95 and flipped over.
A month after the crash, the DMV revoked Williams’ class B chauffeur’s license.
Bronx prosecutors also charged Williams with manslaughter and negligent homicide, accusing him of being too sleep-deprived to drive. However, a jury found him not guilty of all charges except one connected to unpaid tickets.
After a series of communications with the DMV, Williams believed he would have his license restored, according to the petition.
However, the DMV denied his request at a June 24, 2015, administrative hearing, deeming him a “problem driver” with “an unusual and immediate risk upon the highways,” the petition says.
An administrative appeals board upheld the decision in October.
The DMV based its revocation on Williams’ driving history, including 11 violations.
Three of the violations were for driving without a license as a youth. The DMV didn’t learn of the three violations until after the fatal accident because they had been issued to Erick William, an alias he gave police officers when he was a teenager.
Williams’ lawyer, Howard D. Lee, declined to comment.
The DMV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
