Bus driver blamed for crash into Brookline cannon
The driver of the bus that hopped a curb in Brookline and knocked over an iconic cannon July 8 was at fault in the crash and is no longer employed with the Port Authority of Allegheny County, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Bus driver Nicole P. Lawrence, 34, was cited July 18 for failing to wear her seat belt and driving at unsafe speeds during the crash, which Port Authority investigators determined was caused by driver error.
Ms. Lawrence could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
She was hired in 2016 and ceased to be an employee of the Port Authority on Friday, spokesman Adam Brandolph said. He declined to say whether she was fired.
Ms. Lawrence was behind the wheel of an inbound 39Brookline bus around 2:10 p.m. July 8 when the bus crashed into the war memorial in a parklet where Brookline meets Chelton and Queensboro avenues. No one was injured in the crash.
Passengers said at the time it appeared that the bus’s steering
wheel locked up, but Port Authority officials later found that the bus had no mechanical problems. Mr. Brandolph said Port Authority officials reviewed video footage from inside and outside the bus to determine what happened. He declined to say what the video depicted.
Steve Palonis, president/ business agent for Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the documentation the union has received about the crash was consistent with Port Authority’s determination that the bus did not have a mechanical failure.
But he said he “wouldn’t necessarily say” that driver error caused the crash. He called the crash “an accident,” and said the matter was still under investigation by the union.
“We’re in the process of filing a grievance over the discharge [of Ms. Lawrence],” Mr. Palonis said.
Mr. Brandolph said he did not know how fast the bus was going when it crashed; he also would not comment on whether driving at an unsafe speed was the specific driver error that Port Authority believes caused the crash.
The Port Authority has agreed to pay to restore the cannon, which was severely damaged in the collision. The cost of the repairs is not yet known.
The authority is working with the U.S. Department of the Interior to find new wheels for the cannon. It remains unclear how long it will be before the cannon can be returned to the parklet.
Mr. Brandolph said Port Authority also will pay for the repairs that need to be made to the parklet. Fencing, benches and sidewalks were damaged in the crash.
Guy Costa, the city’s operations chief, said the cost of repairs to the parklet, not including the cannon, came in at under $10,000. Work at the parklet is scheduled to begin in the next two weeks and should be completed by the end of the month, he said.
The Model 1917 Schneider 155 mm Howitzer was placed in the parklet in 1946. The weapon was used during World War I, but it’s unknown if the Brookline cannon saw any action.
In its decades at the memorial park, the cannon became a community staple where people would meet and children would play. The Port Authority has possession of the cannon as it awaits repairs.