The bus driver blamed for the deadly accident on a Virginia interstate that killed at least five people and injured dozens more has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, Virginia State Police said on Saturday.

Driver Jing S Dong, who also suffered injuries from the crash, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges pending, police said.

The incident on Friday morning began when Dong "failed to slow for traffic" on Interstate 95 and hit a Chevrolet Suburban that ploughed into other cars, igniting one car on fire.

There is enough evidence to suggest that Dong was driving in a "criminally negligent manner", Virginia prosecutor Eric Olsen said.

The investigation is ongoing, Olsen said, but evidence gathered so far shows the tour bus was travelling "at a high rate of speed" when it struck multiple vehicles driving slowly through a work zone. The result was "a chain reaction crash" involving at least eight vehicles.

Dong was arrested on Saturday by the Virginia State Police and served with felony warrants in the hospital, Olsen said.

Each count of involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Five people died in the accident, including a 44-year-old female, a 13-year-old female, and a seven-year-old male. They were in a car that caught fire and had been on their way to a wedding in South Carolina, according to CBS, the BBC's US news partner.

They were identified to CBS News Boston as a family from Greenfield, Massachusetts - Dmitri Doncev, his wife, Ecaterina, their daughter Emily and son Mark.

The fifth victim, 25-year-old Priscilla Mafalda, was in the Suburban that was initially struck by the bus.

The bus, operated by E&P Travel, was heading from New York to North Carolina.

Roughly 44 people were sent to area hospitals after the collision, three with critical injuries, police said.