A Pittsburgh bus driver came to work on his day off. His familiar route took him to a bridge collapse

By Paul P. Murphy, Tanika Gray and Ray Sanchez, CNN

Daryl Luciani was supposed to be off Friday but got behind the wheel of a Pittsburgh Port Authority bus for some extra cash.

He was shuttling two passengers across the snow-covered Forbes Avenue bridge in Pittsburgh early Friday when the structure collapsed, Luciani told CNN affiliate WTAE.

“I’m a little shaken up here, you know, just thankful to be alive,” Luciani said.

Ten people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the collapse, which occurred hours before a previously scheduled visit to the city by President Joe Biden to discuss infrastructure.

For Luciani, 58, it started out as a normal day on a familiar route until he pulled the 60-foot articulated bus onto the bridge in the predawn darkness.

“It just happened so fast,” Luciani told the station. “The bus was bouncing and shaking.”

The bridge was collapsing, Luciani said, and the force shook and bumped the bus around before the movement suddenly stopped.

“It seemed like the bridge was collapsing as I was driving on it,” Luciani, a port authority driver for nine years, told the station.

The bus driver recalled seeing a car approaching the bridge and then careening off the edge and into a ravine below.

“It was one of those things that you usually see on TV when you’re watching those shows,” he said.

Luciani said his two passengers did not appear to be injured. He worried about the bus rolling into the ravine. First responders used a ladder to rescue Luciani and his passengers.

A port authority route foreman drove the passengers home.

Jeremy Habowski was also driving on the bridge. He said he tried to warn other drivers about the collapse but one car couldn’t stop,

“The silver car ended up going over,” Habowski said told CNN.

No fatalities have been reported, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey told reporters in the area of Forbes and Braddock avenues.

Four vehicles were on the bridge when it fell, Jones said.

Habowski said he felt lucky to be alive after surviving the collapse.

When the bridge collapsed, Habowski said he and other drivers were unable to stop in time.

“The scariest part was definitely going over the edge because there was a gap and my car left the ground,” Habowski said.

His car and others are now sitting on top of what remains of the bridge.

Once things settled, Habowski checked on another driver, he said. Then he climbed up the hill to try and stop other drivers from driving into the debris.

“It was a lot to take in,” he told CNN.

Teams were checking to make sure no one was under the bridge when it collapsed, according to Jones.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation, Jones said.

First responders used ropes to rappel down to get to the victims, Jones said. Crews also used what he called a “daisy chain” where they linked hands to reach the victims and pull them out.

Pittsburgh City Councilmember Corey O’Connor said there likely would have been far more traffic on the bridge later Friday morning.

President Biden visited the site of the collapse Friday afternoon.

The-CNN-Wire
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