Woman who fell from moving bus went through failed door lock, agency says

PITTSBURGH — Port Authority of Allegheny County said on Tuesday that a lock on a door failed and allowed a woman to fall out of a moving bus last week.

The woman, whose identity authorities have not released, suffered serious injuries and remains in the intensive care unit in UPMC Mercy, Uptown, agency spokesman Jim Ritchie said.

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“It's clear that a lock mechanism in the doorway failed, and we're investigating why that occurred. Port Authority has checked all of roughly 700 buses in the fleet and did not find other similar problems,” Ritchie wrote in a statement.

Ritchie said the emergency inspection of the agency's fleet discovered that doors on two bus doorways were not properly aligned. They were fixed, he said.

Ritchie said the agency is “deeply concerned about the passenger who fell” from the bus as it rounded a corner at Fort Pitt Boulevard and Stanwix Street on Friday night. She had been standing at the top of steps at a rear doorway. She lost her balance, fell down the steps and out into the street when the doors opened.

A metal pin atop the doorway is supposed to hold the doors shut when the bus is moving. It's not clear why that didn't happen. The 35-seat bus involved in the accident is 11 years old, Ritchie said.

An investigation is ongoing, Ritchie said.

Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.

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