I love this stuff! Applause, applause!  Yep, the dummy should have 
taken the $ but he had to be greedy. Isn't that usually the case with 
accidents involving transit agencies? Same deal with the US Postal 
Service. People see dollar signs because of the large corporation 
involved. I've seen it happen. Then there are the true dirtbags that 
will purposely cause an accident because they want a new car.
  I'm sure Herb could write a book about his experiences at PAT. I 
know I'd buy it. 

                      Mark 

-- Herb Brannon <hrbran@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
This one I like to call, "He Should Have Taken The $500.00."
   
   
  It was a Summer Sunday night when the Mt. Washington Tunnel was 
closed for rebuilding. Also on weekends everything was going both 
directions over the Arlington Avenue and Warrington Avenue tracks. 
Like I said it was Summer. I was working a night run on 35 and 36 
beginning around 5:00 pm and getting off at 2:30 am. Around 8 pm a 
line of strong thunderstorms moved through the Pittsburgh area doing 
as much damage as they could before it all ended around 10 pm. Some 
wires were knocked down by the wind near South Hills Jct. This caused 
all the streetlamps and building circuits on Warrington Avenue to go 
out. 
   
  With no lights burning in the building and with all the streetlamps 
out along Warrington it was nearly pitch black. I had a trip coming 
off the 35 and arriving in the city around 12 midnight. I was running 
late and was trying to make up as much time as possible where I 
could. I left the S. Hill Jct Administration Building and took the 
switch onto the right-of-way heading to Warrington Avenue. Car 1702 
was a good runner and held the track without much bounce or sway. The 
car glided onto Warrington Avenue. I turned on the "interurban" roof 
headlight because of the dark conditions on the street. Looking ahead 
the street was clear, no traffic coming or going, so I picked up the 
speed. We crossed Beltzhover and I gave another application of power 
and the car responded accordingly. 
   
  Now, after Beltzhoover the curbstones on Warrington were abnormally 
high, and I mean ABNORMALLY high. Most curbs are about 10 or less 
inches from the street surface to the sidewalk surface. Not these. 
They were nearly 18 inches, if not more. Therefore any auto parked 
against the curb was not going to be moved onto the sidewalk by any 
physical forces applied to that autos left side. Also, bear in mind 
that there was not enough room to park a 1970s auto between the curb 
and the outside car track. Everyone parking on Warrington Avenue put 
the right side of their auto up on the curb or sidewalk to keep clear 
of the car tracks. That could not be done is this strip of 
Warrington. 
   
  Just at the last minute I saw the form of an auto, painted in dull 
black primer, sitting against the curb...........the very high curb. 
I said something like, Holy FXXX and jammed the brake pedal to the 
lock position and reached down with my right hand and did what was 
called "throwing the hook", or putting the direction controller 
handle in the up-most position. This assisted in making a full 
emergency stop. I then got my right hand back up on the sand switch. 
Interurban cars would not run sand even when put into emergency. 
Things were now running in the usual "slow motion" which takes over 
during such events. The car was trying to stop. I could even feel the 
physical forces (easier to do in a mass moving in a straight line) of 
forward motion trying to be arrested by the braking action. It now 
seemed very quiet almost like the streetcar was a fast moving 
watercraft with propellers in reverse. I turned my head and looked 
out the number 1 door, through the glass in the
 bottom and saw the rear bumper of the auto appear. Next the quiet 
became one of the loudest sounds I ever heard as 28,350 pounds of 
heavy steel pinned a tin-can stock 1963 Chrysler product between it 
and the curbstones. The trolley did not stop its assault on the auto 
until all 42 feet had restyled the autos body and came to a stop 
three feet past the auto. 
   
  The results on 1702 were hardly noticeable. The bottom glass in the 
number 1 door was cracked, not broken, but only cracked. The paint on 
the bottom of the number one and number two doors was scratched in 
several places but nothing that 15 minutes of cosmetic repair work 
could correct. The rub rail on the open side of the trolley had a few 
minor scratches.
   
  The auto, however, was another story. I was now flat as a pancake 
on the left side from the rear to the front. Also, it was now three 
or four inches narrower that it was before being introduced to the 
power of a 1949, well built, streetcar. The only window glass 
remaining in the auto were the front and rear right side windows. 
Left side windows, windshield, and rear window were things of the 
past. The guy who owned the car was standing outside one of the row 
houses talking with his buddy's when this took place. No one was in 
the car, thank God.
   
  Now, after all was said and done, I only got called into the 
Superintendent's Office to explain what happened. I was not charged 
with the accident. I wondered why but was certainly not going to ask 
the Superintendent to go ahead and give me a chargeable accident.
   
  About a month later I got a note from the Claims Department that 
the guy who owned the car was suing PATransit and I should come by 
the head office and get the court date. I did and then appeared in 
court. The PAT attorney came up and introduced himself and 
said, "Don't worry one bit about this. We will only be here about 
five minutes or less. You won't even have to get on the stand." That 
was fine with me and I settled back in the hard wood seat to watch 
the drama unfold. The great trolley caper was the first case called. 
The PAT attorney got up and holding a small booklet in his hand, said 
to the judge, "Your honor I need to call to the attention of the 
court the Motor Vehicle Code of the City of Pittsburgh." He went on, 
to the court, "I'm sorry we are using this but it is the law." He 
then went on to quote a law, probably on the books for a century, but 
still very valid which more or less states that if anyone blocks the 
car tracks with their auto they will have no
 recourse and will have to stand ALL damages by themselves. As it 
turned out PAT had offered the man $500 for the old car and he turned 
it down hoping to get rich in court. He of course never read the 
Motor Vehicle Code of the City of Pittsburgh, or at least not the 
section covering streetcars. The PAT attorney asked the court that 
the plaintiff pay, and was granted $350.00 for repairs to car 1702, 
$75.00 to cover my costs for appearing and just sitting there and all 
court and legal fees. The judge agreed. The guy now had to pay well 
over $500.00 for all this. Like I said at the beginning, he should 
have taken the $500.00! 

Herb Brannon