Bystanders restrain driver after fatal collision with pedestrian in Pittsburgh's Bluff neighborhood

A Pittsburgh man died after being hit by a pickup truck in the city’s Bluff neighborhood shortly before 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to city police.

First responders found the man at Vine Street and Fifth Avenue with a significant head injury, police said.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said the man, 65-year-old Andre Reynolds, died at about 4:45 a.m. Saturday at Pittsburgh’s UPMC Mercy Hospital.

Police arrested the driver, Kamal Prasad Upreti, 34, of Pittsburgh, and charged him with an accident involving death or injury, driving under the influence and failure to stop and render aid or provide information.

Witnesses told officers that the driver tried to run away on foot after the collision, but bystanders restrained him until officers arrived, according to police.

The pickup crashed into an excavator, and Reynolds was found lying unconscious in the bucket of the excavator, according to a criminal complaint filed by police.

Police said Upreti gave inconsistent accounts of the crash. Upreti claimed that someone else, whom he could not describe, was driving the pickup, police said.

Upreti was also charged with careless and reckless driving.

Police said the pickup, viewed by a city camera, attempted to make a left turn heading the wrong way onto Fifth Avenue, which is a one-way eastbound street.

The city’s Vision Zero Fatal Crash Response team will visit the site in the upcoming weeks to evaluate potential crash factors.

At the time of the crash, Upreti was out on bond stemming from charges of terroristic threats and simple assault in a separate incident, police said.

Upreti was arraigned Saturday on the charges related to the crash and was placed in the Allegheny County Jail. According to court documents, bail was denied because he is deemed a threat to the community and a flight risk.

He faces an Aug. 28 preliminary hearing.