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A Port Authority bus hopped a curb in Brookline Saturday afternoon and knocked an iconic cannon off its moorings at a war memorial in Pittsburgh neighborhood.
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Port Authority bus strikes cannon at Brookline war memorial

Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette

Port Authority bus strikes cannon at Brookline war memorial

A Port Authority bus hopped a curb in Brookline on Saturday afternoon and knocked an iconic cannon off its moorings at a war memorial in the South Hills neighborhood.

The incident happened around 2:10 p.m., according to Port Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie.

The cannon remained lodged in a side window at the front of the red bus.

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No one on board the bus was injured, but someone in one of the vehicles it struck was slightly hurt.

A Port Authority bus hopped a curb in Brookline on Saturday afternoon and knocked an iconic cannon off its moorings at a war memorial in the South Hills neighborhood.
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Albert Theobald, 34, of Brookline was one of four passengers on the bus when it lost control. He said he was sitting two seats behind the window where the cannon came through.

“I immediately ducked and put my hands on my face and crouched onto the floor,” Mr. Theobald said. “I was thinking ‘Is this the end?’ I went into survival mode and covered up and ducked.”

Mr. Ritchie said the cause of the accident is under investigation. Passengers said the bus driver appeared to be upset over the crash.

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“She was pretty shaken,” Mr. Theobald said. “She was in shock. Who wouldn’t be?”

The bus, an inbound 39-Brookline, struck the cannon, which is located at a war memorial in a parklet where Brookline meets Chelton and Queensboro avenues.

“It hit the cannon in that parklet, so there’s significant damage both to the vehicles involved, to the parklet and the bus as well,” Mr. Ritchie said.

Passengers on the bus said in interviews that the steering appeared to lock up. The driver jumped on the brakes to try to stop the bus but ended up losing control, the passengers said.

A Port Authority bus sits against a wall and railing on Chelton Avenue after it crashed through the war memorial parklet in Brookline on July 8. The memorial's cannon became stuck inside the bus during the crash. Port Authority on Thursday said it found no mechanical defect with the bus.
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“We could feel the wheel lock, and we knew she wouldn’t make the turn,” Mr. Theobald said.

The bus went through a low fence around the memorial, struck the cannon, went over another fence and came to rest against a wall and part of a railing in front of the Brookline Dance Studio.

“We hit the curb — ‘Boom!’ Then we hit the cannon and go over the wall — ‘Boom!’ and into the wall — ‘Boom!’” said Larry Cooper, 71, of Mount Washington. “There was glass all over the place.”

Clint Burton, who runs the Brookline Connection website, said the cannon at the memorial was a Model 1917 Schneider 155 mm Howitzer that would have been used in World War I.

The cannon was installed at the memorial in 1946 to replace another cannon that had been taken for a World War II metal drive.

“A lot of them stayed with the Army and were used for training purposes during World War II,” Mr. Burton said. “After the war, I assume this was surplus and … somehow or another we managed to get that cannon here to Brookline.”

Mr. Burton, 55, has been a Brookline resident his entire life except for 10 years when he lived in Ohio. He called Saturday “a pretty sad day” for the neighborhood.

“It’s something that, if you live here in Brookline, you grew up with it,” Mr. Burton said of the cannon. “When you were little, your parents took you up to see it, you played on it, crawled around and turned little dials.

“It was just the centerpiece, kind of like the Kaufmann’s clock when you’re in town. ‘I’ll meet you at the clock.’ ‘I’ll meet you at the cannon.’ ”

There was no word late Saturday on what would happen to the cannon or the memorial.

Mr. Burton said the cannon did not appear to be too badly damaged in the photos he’s seen of the accident. He said he hopes the cannon can be restored and returned to the memorial.

“It looked like with a little bit of love and attention it could be put back,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be able to get another one quite like it.”

Anthony Conroy: aconroy@post-gazette.com; Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com; Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com

First Published: July 8, 2017, 7:43 p.m.
Updated: July 9, 2017, 3:37 a.m.

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A Port Authority bus hopped a curb in Brookline Saturday afternoon and knocked an iconic cannon off its moorings at a war memorial in Pittsburgh neighborhood.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
A Port Authority police officer takes photos of a cannon that became lodged in the Route 39 bus after it crashed through the veterans memorial in Brookline on Saturday.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
Workers from Port Authority and towing company McCann & Chester haul away the cannon from the Brookline Veterans Memorial on Chelton Avenue just off of Brookline Boulevard on Saturday.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
The Brookline Veterans Memorial Cannon is hauled away on a flatbed truck on to Brookline Boulevard on Saturday.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
A Port Authority bus hopped a curb in Brookline on Saturday afternoon and knocked an iconic cannon off its moorings at a war memorial in the South Hills neighborhood.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
Albert Theobald, 34, left, of Brookline shakes hands with Larry Cooper, 71, of Mount Washington after the Route 39 bus they were riding crashed Saturday in Brookline.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
Benches and railings were flattened by a Port Authority bus on Saturday after it crashed through the veterans memorial in Brookline, taking with it the iconic cannon that was inside the park.  (Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette)
Anthony Conroy/Post-Gazette
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