Aurora police are investigating the death of a 78-year-old man who was struck and killed by an RTD bus at 5:41 p.m. today, the third bus-related fatality in as many days.
His name was not released.
“The pedestrian and the bus were on the sidewalk,” said Aurora Police Lt. Charles DeShazer just before 8 p.m., as police were wrapping up the onscene investigation. “They collided somehow. We’re not sure yet exactly what happened. We have witnesses who were standing nearby who aren’t sure what happened, just that he ended up under the bus.”
RTD spokesman Scott Reed said the bus driver — whose name was not released — and his passengers were unaware a pedestrian had been struck.
The bus traveled north another two miles to South Peoria Street and Del Mar Court, where the bus was impounded and the driver taken in for questioning and a drug test, Reed said.
Investigators left flourescent orange paint at the scene of the accident, with an X marking a spot about 6 inchess off the curb on the concrete before the asphalt. Other markings several feet north of the X appeared to note three spots where the bus hit the curb.
“The driver is cooperating with investigators and is, understandably, upset by the incident,” Aurora police said in a press release.
Reed said the driver was an RTD employee, not a driver for a contract firm that leases RTD buses and provides its own drivers to some routes.
A contract driver was involved in an accident Saturday that killed two people at Eighth Avenue and Lincoln Street in Denver. That accident remains under investigation.
