Time: Around 8:10 A.M.
Location: Evans City, Pennsylvania
Vehicle(s) Involved: Ford E-450 bus, train
By Molly Born, Liz Navratil and Jonathan D. Silver / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A rural Butler County railroad crossing where a freight train carrying asphalt collided Friday with a paratransit bus in heavy fog -- killing one person and injuring 10 others -- lacked warning lights and swinging gate arms to halt traffic.
For unknown reasons the bus ended up with its passengers -- elderly and disabled adults -- atop the tracks at Maple Avenue in Evans City around 8:10 a.m., when the 31-car train slammed into its driver's side, knocking the vehicle askew and totaling it.
Two critically injured passengers were flown by medical helicopter to Pittsburgh-area hospitals. One of them, 91-year-old Claudette Miller of Callery, died at Allegheny General Hospital at 1:02 p.m., according to the Allegheny County medical examiner's office.
The other remained in critical condition, and Evans City police Chief Joseph McCombs said the passenger might not survive.
Everyone else on the bus, including the driver -- identified by Chief McCombs as Frank Schaffner, 59, of Butler -- was taken by ambulance to hospitals in Allegheny and Butler counties. Hospital officials said their injuries were not life-threatening.
Conflicting accounts emerged about whether the driver was stopped or in the process of crossing the tracks when the crash occurred. Also unclear was the role the fog played.
"For some unknown reason, it stopped directly in the crossing," Chief McCombs said of the bus. Police said the train's engineer told them he sounded the horn "numerous times."
Chief McCombs said the bus, which was going east toward South Washington Street, entered the crossing and did not move as the Allegheny Valley Railroad train -- composed of two locomotives and 29 cars -- was approaching.
The train was believed to be moving around 25 mph -- the speed limit -- according to information provided to federal inspectors by the engineer and conductor.
The engineer saw the bus, sounded the horn several times and applied the brakes before the crash, which Chief McCombs described as "pretty chaotic" with "pretty severe impact."
Michael Robb, executive director of the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources Inc., which oversees the program under whose auspices the passengers were being transported, relayed a different version of events.
"I don't believe the bus stopped on the train tracks at all. He stopped prior to the tracks as he's required and as he was crossing the tracks he was hit," Mr. Robb said.
"It really is at the driver's discernment whether a train was coming. I do not know if the train blew the whistle or not. All I know is that our driver was conscious enough to give his report to local authorities that he stopped. As he was crossing he was struck by the train."
Mr. Robb said he had not spoken to the driver. He expressed sympathy to the victims and said transportation services will continue.
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