Suit says driver traveling too fast in pedestrian death

A woman has sued UPMC alleging negligence after her sister was struck and killed by a hospital shuttle bus in September.

At 3:40 p.m. on Sept. 17, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Mary “Jeanne” Flaherty, 76, of Monroeville, was hit by the shuttle when she was crossing the street at the intersection of Terrace and Buffalo streets on an unmarked crosswalk, the lawsuit reads.

The driver, Senta A. Thomas, was turning left onto Terrace Street from Buffalo when she hit Lt. Col. Flaherty, according to Pittsburgh police. A nurse was performing CPR on her when first responders arrived on scene, but Lt. Col. Flaherty was pronounced dead at 4:06 p.m. at UPMC Presbyterian.

Ms. Thomas stayed on the scene and cooperated with investigators, police said at the time of the incident.

The lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, brought by Janice M. Flaherty, of Indiana County, claims the shuttle operator was driving at an excessive speed, failed to yield right-of-way to a pedestrian, did not take evasive maneuvers and failed to pay adequate attention to her surroundings.

“Defendant’s negligence was

the sole, direct and proximate cause of the accident,” the lawsuit reads.

“The death of Mary J. Flaherty would not have occurred at the time and manner that it did absent Defendants’ negligence as described above,” reads the suit.

Lt. Col. Flaherty served in Korea and in various military posts throughout the U.S. during her 27-year career before retiring in 1997.

She was a 1962 graduate of Turtle Creek High

School. Lt. Col. Flaherty never married, family told the Post-Gazette after her death.

In a September interview, another sibling, Susan L.Q. Flaherty, of Washington, D.C., said her sister was “not some elderly lady who fell under a bus. She was quite active and a solid citizen.”

UPMC, in a written statement sent after the collision, said, “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family of the deceased and with all who witnessed this terrible event.”