The driver of a MARTA bus that struck and killed a pedestrian in West End last week has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide.
Leroy Brown, 59, was behind the wheel of the bus when it hit 19-year-old Brenda Travis as she tried to cross Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard at Lee Street just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 24, according to an Atlanta police incident report.
Travis was in the crosswalk, and had made it more than halfway across the street when she was hit by the bus, the report states.
Brown told investigators that he sounded his horn, “but the pedestrian was distracted and on her cellphone,” according to the report.
Video from the bus showed that Brown had the green light, and that Travis was wearing ear bud headphones and looking down at her phone. The report also states that Brown “ was traveling at a speed that he should have been able to slow down to keep from striking the pedestrian.”
Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said Brown was charged Wednesday with failure to yield to pedestrian and homicide by vehicle, 2nd degree, both misdemeanors.
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