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Four people might not have been killed and dozens injured if federal authorities followed through on their initial decision this spring to shutter SkyExpress discount bus service.

Instead, they gave the Charlotte company a 10-day reprieve. And on the third extra day — about 5 a.m. Tuesday — the company’s Greensboro-to-New York bus overturned on Interstate 95 about 30 miles north of Richmond, Va., with tragic consequences.

Four women from three Northeast states died in the wreckage allegedly caused by driver error linked to excessive fatigue.

The accident followed an in-depth “compliance review” by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in April that gave the company an unsatisfactory rating and required SkyExpress to shut down Saturday.

“(But) the company requested an extension of time to provide additional material that may speak in their favor, which we granted,” said Duane DeBruyne of the federal safety agency. “In the ensuing time, the crash occurred and we withdrew the extension.”

The cut-rate bus company was closed Wednesday and not answering the phone.

Those killed in the accident included Karen Blyden-Decastro, 46, of Cambria Heights, N.Y.; Sie Giok Giang, 63, of Philadelphia; Josefa Torres, 78, of Jamaica, N.Y.; and Denny Estefany Martinez, 25, of Jersey City, N.J.

All but a few of the 53 other passengers suffered injuries of varying severity. Several Central Virginia hospitals confirmed Wednesday they continued to treat 27 of the passengers.

DeBruyne said he could not comment on whether agency officials are second-guessing their decision to grant SkyExpress an extension. But federal Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said he’s directing the agency and other units of the U.S. Department of Transportation to stop extending appeal time for operators rated unsafe.

“We will use every resource at our disposal to pursue and remove from our roads unsafe, reckless bus companies,” LaHood said in a statement.

Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., was charged with reckless driving after losing control of the bus and hitting an embankment before flipping over. He suffered minor injuries.

Federal and state officials both monitor the safety of long-distance buses with a combination of roadside checks and periodic, detailed inspections called “compliance reviews.”

In the past six months, specially trained Highway Patrol troopers performed 465 such checks in the field, 125 in a special campaign this spring, said Lt. Doug Shackelford, who leads North Carolina’s motor carrier enforcement section.

The federal motor-carrier agency does most compliance reviews at company headquarters, as infrequently as every five years for a bus company with a top-notch safety record to every eight months for one with a “conditional” rating, Shackelford said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s website shows that SkyExpress underwent compliance reviews in each of the past four years.

The site shows SkyExpress scored worse than 99.7 percent of companies evaluated in the category screening drivers for required licensing, experience, medical fitness and English language skills.  The company also fared worse than 86.2 percent of its peers in driver fatigue and operators driving too many hours without rest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com