Saturday, October 04, 2003

By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Pennsylvania State Police inspector next week will examine the brakes, electronics and mechanical systems of a city garbage truck to determine what caused it to roll down a Mount Washington street, killing its driver before crashing through a wall.

The investigation will include a review of a "10-inch-thick" file that constitutes the 11-year-old truck's maintenance history, including records of its last inspection a month ago at a South Park garage. City officials would not say if that file includes a work order submitted earlier this week for brake repairs, as some city workers contended after the crash.

The investigation of Thursday's crash, in which truck driver Gregory Leonard, 46, of Chartiers City, was killed, appears to be centering on the GMC truck's compressed-air-operated brake system and whether the brakes had been applied or had failed.

City police yesterday said they examined the truck immediately after the crash, but would not say if the brakes malfunctioned or even if they had been engaged before Leonard and two other workers began loading refuse on Secane Street.

"We have to put the puzzle together. This is a very complicated accident," said Officer Daniel Connolly of the accident investigation unit. "We are talking about weeks [to complete the investigation]."

Police today plan to return to Secane Street with the other two workers from Leonard's crew to re-create the crash, step by step, Connolly said. Investigators waited until today, he said, because Leonard's co-workers were in "severe distress" immediately after the crash and too emotional to assist police.

On Monday, city police truck-safety inspectors will weigh the truck, which has been impounded at the city garage in the Strip District, to determine if its packer was overweight when it crashed. The officers could not do so earlier because they were in Harrisburg for a required quarterly certification of their scales.

City police then will turn the truck over to a state trooper certified to inspect trucks and reconstruct accidents, Connolly said. City police will watch, but not participate, to ensure an independent process, he said.

After the crash, a city crew worked for hours on the truck's air brake system so the vehicle could be freed and towed to the garage. But Connolly said nothing was done to the truck that would prevent investigators from locating a malfunction.

Connolly said he obtained the truck's maintenance file yesterday but said he had not studied the history of past inspections and repairs.

City Public Works Director Guy Costa, who on Thursday said the truck was last inspected in September, could not be reached yesterday.

Fred Bell, president of the union that represents city mechanics and garage workers, said the truck went out of service July 30, when its previous inspection sticker expired. It was inspected Sept. 2 by Pittsburgh Fleet Maintenance Inc., a South Park garage that the city uses to supplement inspections and repairs performed at its own garage.

State law requires the truck to be inspected twice each year. It returned to service Sept. 5, Bell said.

Bell, president of Local 52 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and a mechanic at the city garage, said he's seen no work orders or requests for repairs for the truck's brakes or other systems entered into the city garage computer since then.

"Since it came back into service, the only thing I can find was that it was in for hydraulic fluid [to be added] for the packer," he said. "We fixed that, but we haven't done any brake or any other work since it's been back."

Bell contended that Pittsburgh Fleet has not adequately repaired other city vehicles and that its workers have missed potential problems when inspecting city cars. He refused to be specific, but said he would produce records of complaints from workers who drive city vehicles if the police investigation indicates that the crash may have been related to problems that went uncorrected or undetected at the inspection.

Bell, who said the city garage workforce has dropped from about 45 workers to 36 over the past decade, said the city increasingly is shifting vehicle inspections and repairs to the private garage because it's cheaper.

Linda Trimbur, who owns Pittsburgh Fleet, said she was not aware of Bell's criticisms. She said she suspects he and his workers view her garage as competition and resent losing work. She said she was initially told that the garbage truck's brake had not been engaged Thursday, but she declined further comment until the investigation is completed.

"I'm not worried about the quality of our work," she said. "I would rather let the independent person examine the truck and go from there."

Leonard was killed when the truck abruptly began moving shortly after he got out to help his bulk-refuse collection crew. Leonard ran from the back of the truck and tried to get back into the driver's seat, but fell and was run over, officials said.

The truck then rolled about 150 feet down Secane Street, smashed through a concrete wall at Laclede Street and dropped about 12 feet down to Haberman Avenue.

Funeral arrangements for Leonard, who was employed by the city Public Works Department for 10 years, will be handled by Odell Robinson Jr. Funeral Home, North Side. A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Macedonia Baptist Church, 2210 Bedford Ave., Hill District.

There will be no city garbage collection Monday so that city workers and members of Teamsters Local 249 can attend that service. Regular city garbage collection will be pushed back one day for the rest of the week.

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