Birmingham, Alabama’s “MAX” transit system is currently facing litigation following a March 4th incident in which one of their DART buses struck and killed a special needs woman who was crossing the street in a pedestrian crosswalk.
Twenty-five year old Pouneh Bahri was crossing the street at the intersection of 20th Street and 14th Avenue South after having attended a cooking class. She was enrolled at the Horizons School, located on Birmingham’s Southside. The school offers programs to educate 18 to 26 year old special needs adults to live independently, and the class that she had just completed was a soup-making class. She had joined a group of her classmates and friends after class and had begun walking the two block distance back to their apartments in a residential complex owned by the school when the incident occurred.
According to Birmingham police, the DART bus driver was 51-year old Alex James Mixon. The police report indicated that Mixon was driving east on 14th Avenue and had turned left onto 20th Street without having yielded the right of way to the pedestrian, who was in the crosswalk. Bahri was dragged for half a block before Mixon brought his vehicle to a halt. She was killed almost immediately. According to the police report, though there is no surveillance footage of the accident there were many witnesses, and they saw what took place from a number of different angles and vantage points. All concur that Bahri had been walking within a marked crosswalk and that the lighted indicator had displayed the “WALK” instruction. The driver tested negative for both drugs and alcohol and his cell phone records indicated that he had not made or received any texts or calls during the day of the accident before the accident took place.
According to Executive Director Ann August of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, her organization has been cotacted by attorneys representing Ms. Bahri’s family about the accident, and the Birmingham police have turned over their findings to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. August said, “It is the position of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority not to comment on the possibility of future and/or pending litigation and/or any possible criminal investigations being conducted by the District Attorney’s office.” She further indicated that the family of Pouneh Bahri is in their prayers and will continue to be in their prayers.