Accident Report Detail

About 8:03 a.m., on February 10, 1978, a trolley car and a bus owned by the Port Authority of Allegheny County collided in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when the trolley car suddenly turned into the path of the oncoming bus. Four persons were killed, 37 persons were injured, and damage was estimated to be $48,000.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the operator's inadvertent and untimely operation of an unprotected track switch, which caused the trolley car to be routed into the path of the approaching bus. Contributing to the accident was the operator's operation of the car at a speed too great to permit stopping when he detected the turning movement of the car, and the lack of protective devices to control the switch operation.