Police chase that sent PRT bus crashing into Homewood house started with minor traffic offense

A police chase that sent a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus barreling into a house in Homewood on Tuesday started due to a summary offense by the driver officers were pursuing.

PHOTOS: PRT bus crashes into Pittsburgh home

The chase started in Monroeville and went through several communities. It ended with the PRT bus slamming into a man’s house and multiple people getting hurt.

“He used poor judgment. I think to pursue that distance was poor judgment,” District Attorney Stephen Zappala told Channel 11.

>> PRT bus crashes into Pittsburgh home after it was hit by car during police chase

“This was not the result that we wanted. The officer got hurt, two other people got hurt, there was an accident with the bus. We’ll do better than that in the future. But under these circumstances, I don’t find fault in it,” he said.

Back in 2017, the DA set a model policy — saying that police should only chase suspects with violent felonies.

In Tuesday’s chase, that driver was suspected of having tinted windows, which is a minor traffic offense.

“Are you kidding me? Somebody could be dead,” Beth Pittinger, the executive director of the city’s Citizen Police Review Board told Channel 11.

She says, that for a traffic stop, the risk of the chase was too high.

“This guy was stopped on the basis of alleged unlawful window tint. He wasn’t being pursued for a strong armed robbery, or committed a violent assault, a rape, a murder, any violent crime,” she said.

Channel 11 has tried to get in touch with Monroeville’s mayor and police chief to discuss what happened.

The DA told us — they are conducting an investigation into the chase.

There is a warrant for the driver of the car, Kairon Collins. Police say he weaved in and out of oncoming traffic lanes and sped through an active PennDOT site.

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