Trial begins for bus drivers accused of racing before crash

PITTSBURGH — The non-jury trial for two former Port Authority bus drivers accused of racing got underway Monday.

One of the buses crashed through a guiderail and rolled down an embankment on the Parkway North in September 2014. The two buses were heading inbound.%

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Juliann Maier and Thomas Frauens, who were both fired shortly after the incident, deny they were racing before the accident.

Maier said there were problems with the brakes, which caused her bus to careen down the 100-foot embankment onto Evergreen Road.

“It should never have been allowed to be out on Pittsburgh streets, where many people could have been killed. Julie is the scapegoat for somebody or some people who let this bus go forward when they knew it was a death trap,” Maier’s attorney, Joel Sansone, said.

Prosecutors said surveillance video from inside the bus Frauens was driving shows him making a "buggy whip" motion, which they say confirms the two drivers were racing.

The 911 call between Frauens and his supervisor following the crash was played in court on Monday.

Dr. Corin D’Ascenzo, who had left Ross Park Mall minutes before the crash, also testified Monday about watching the crash happen in her rearview mirror. She said one bus swerved into the other before crashing over the embankment.

"If I had been five seconds slower, I could have been hit. I could have died. When I got to the place I was going, I was crying because it's scary,” D’Ascenzo said.

Lastly, the prosecution introduced pictures of the damage to the side of the bus Frauens was driving. Frauens had said the damage occurred when he pulled out of the gas station, but the surveillance video from inside the bus he was driving contradicts his statement.

Testimony in the case will continue Tuesday through at least the end of the week.

Cox Media Group