[PRCo] True Tales Of The Operators -- Another Installment

[Herb Brannon]

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