Port Authority driver pleads guilty to crash that killed Pitt student

A Port Authority bus driver who struck a Pitt student last year in Oakland pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter.

Shavonne James, 34, will serve three years probation. She also pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly endangering another person.

According to Deputy District Attorney Stephie Ramaley, James was driving Bus No. 6346 from the South Side to the Hill District at 12:09 p.m., when she stopped as she turned right onto DeSoto Street from Fifth Avenue to pick up a person who was running for the bus.

As James continued through the intersection, Barbara Como, 20, of Chester Springs, Chester County, and another woman were crossing in the marked crosswalk — with the walk signal lit, Ramaley said.

Passengers on the bus started yelling, and James drove a few more feet before realizing she had hit a pedestrian.

Como was taken to nearby UPMC Presbyterian where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

According to Ramaley, James violated several driving rules: She didn’t yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk; she entered into a turn after picking up a passenger at a non-designated stop; that passenger remained in front of the line that separates the driver from the passengers, thereby blocking James’ view of her mirrors on the bus; and she operated the bus unsafely by allowing passengers to remain standing.

“She would not have been able to see the victims in this situation,” Ramaley said.

The prosecutor noted, too, that it was a cold and rainy day, and there was more traffic in the area because of a Pitt basketball game.

Defense attorney Nicole Nino called what happened that day a “tragic accident.”

“She is beyond sorry for the loss of life of this young, up-and-coming college student,” Nino said. “She’s heartbroken.”

James, who was hired as a bus driver in August 2016, has no criminal record and is a single mother to a toddler, Nino said.

“She is a wonderful mother. She is an amazing human being,” her attorney said.

James, who appeared for the virtual hearing in Nino’s office, did not speak on her own behalf. She appeared to be crying throughout Nino’s comments.

The defense attorney told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Alexander P. Bicket that James will not be permitted to return to work as a driver with Port Authority but is hoping to remain on there in another capacity.

“Her employer wants to work with her because she’s such a good employee,” Nino said.

A Port Authority spokesman said that James remains an employee and is currently being held off with pay pending an internal hearing.

The plea agreement called for a sentence of probation to be set by the court. In addition to probation, James was also ordered to pay court costs.

“There’s no sentence that’s going to satisfy anybody with respect to what happened,” Bicket said.