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FILE—In this photo from Saturday, March 12, 2011, emergency personnel investigate the scene of a bus crash on Interstate-95 in the Bronx borough of New York .  A verdict has been reached in a manslaughter case against the bus driver Ophadell Williams, charged in the crash that killed 15 passengers.  Williams has pleaded not guilty. He says a tractor-trailer cut him off and he lost control. The bus carrying gamblers coming from a Connecticut casino was sheared open like a sardine can when it struck a pole. (AP Photo/David Karp, File)

New York - A casino bus driver at the helm of a New York crash that killed 15 people last year has been found not guilty of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Ophadell Williams was found guilty Friday on one count of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Prosecutors alleged he was so exhausted it was as though he was drunk behind the wheel.

Defense Attorney Patrick Bruno says Williams was well-rested and the crash was the result of a tractor-trailer that swiped the bus and drove off, causing Williams to lose control.

Williams was driving from a Connecticut casino to New York’s Chinatown when the bus crashed around 5:30 a.m. on March 12, 2011.

Authorities say the speeding bus ran off the highway, hit a guardrail, then toppled. A sign pole sheared off the roof.

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