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Port Authority Fires Bus Drivers Involved In Parkway North Crash

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Port Authority has fired the drivers of two buses involved in a crash earlier this year that sent one of the vehicles tumbling off the Parkway North.

Thomas Frauens and Juliann Maier are now awaiting trial, accused of driving recklessly.

Frauens is charged with a total of 10 counts, including accident involving death or personal injury, accident involving damage to attended vehicle, and four counts of recklessly endangering another person. He is also facing summary offenses.

Maier is facing four counts of recklessly endangering another person. She is also facing summary offenses of driving outside lane, charges of driving at unsafe speed, careless driving, and reckless driving.

Back on Dec. 5, District Judge Eugene Ricciardi ordered the two bus drivers to stand trial in connection with the September accident on I-279.

During that hearing, the judge listened to four hours of testimony from witnesses of the crash and saw the videotape from the bus Frauens was driving.

Frauens and Maier's lawyers maintain that one of the buses had a mechanical problem that caused the crash.

"There is no evidence that my client did anything on purpose, or that Tom Frauens did anything on purpose to put anybody in danger," said defense attorney Joel Sansone after the Dec. 5 hearing. "What kind of an idiot would try to play tag with a bus like that? It's obvious from the eyewitness testimony that this bus started to slide and skid before she ever came near him."

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