The driver of a Vineyard Transit Authority bus that struck two pedestrians on Church street in Edgartown last month was not at fault and will face no charges, Edgartown police said Tuesday following the release of detailed reports surrounding the accident.
Edgartown police chief Bruce McNamee released two reports on Tuesday: one from the night of the accident and a separate report from five days earlier when the same bus driver had been pulled from his route due to extreme fatigue that led to a call to police for erratic driving.
Chief McNamee said after thorough investigation by state and town police, he is confident that the two incidents were unrelated however unusual since they involved the same driver — Peter Magierski, 33, of Orlando, Fla.
The two pedestrians injured in the accident are home and recovering, Chief McNamee told the Gazette Tuesday.
Mr. Magierski, who has since left his employment with the VTA, cleared all alcohol and drug tests and police said he was alert and not fatigued at the time of the accident.
The accident occurred on the night of July 26 at about 10:15 p.m. as the bus driven by Mr. Magierski was turning onto Church street near the visitor center, the area where VTA buses queue up. Two pedestrians were crossing the street at the time and were struck and injured, one critically. Michael Kelly, 44, of Quincy, sustained head injuries and was later airlifted to Boston for treatment. Paul O’Grady, 68, of Pembroke was less seriously injured and treated at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. A third person, Pansy Griffiths, 68, of Oak Bluffs and a passenger on the bus, also sustained minor injuries when the bus braked to a stop.
A lengthy police report from that night recounts the details, including the response by EMS and others and eyewitness accounts from people who were in the area at the time. A video on board the bus also was reviewed. At the request of Chief McNamee, a member of the Massachusetts state police accident reconstruction team also came to the scene to conduct an investigation.
That report is not complete yet, but Chief McNamee said state police have concurred with his finding that the driver was not at fault.
Among other things the police report notes that the street was dark, that the bus was traveling at a low rate of speed (about eight miles per hour) and that the pedestrians were “in the blind spot of the bus in the poorly illuminated area.” The passengers were crossing the street diagonally from the Whaling Church, apparently headed to a restaurant on Church street near the visitor center, according to the police report.
When police returned to the station after the accident, they discovered that Mr. Magierski had been involved in an incident on July 21 when someone had called to report an erratic operator of a VTA bus on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road. When the bus was pulled over Mr. Magierski said he had been working two jobs and had not been getting enough sleep. There were no passengers on board the bus at the time. He was cited for marked lane violations and relieved of his duties due to fatigue, according to the police report. No signs of impairment were found.
The following day Mr. Magierski quit his second job and began working normal shifts for the VTA, police found through subsequent interviews.
Chief McNamee said the unusual confluence of events led him to call in the state police accident reconstruction team. “I knew the optics were awful and I wanted a fresh set of eyes on it,” he said. “And the state police have corroborated our findings.”
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