Ronald Davenport, 83, was struck and killed by a Bucks County Transport bus on Aug. 12 outside his home at Grundy Hall in Doylestown Township. More than two months after the collision, his family says authorities still have not explained what happened.
An attorney for the Davenport family now alleges the bus driver struck Davenport, dragged his body a short distance, ran over him a second time and then left the scene before police arrived. The allegations come from the family's own investigation, according to attorney David Kwass of the Philadelphia firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, as first reported by the Bucks County Courier Times.
As we reported Oct. 16, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office confirmed an active investigation into the death but has declined to discuss specifics.
The collision happened around 9 p.m. as Davenport crossed from Grundy Hall to the complex's parking lot off Easton Road. The bus was returning after taking residents to a nearby concert, Kwass told the Courier Times. The family believes the bus was chartered for that event because it was operating outside the regular DART bus schedule, which had ended three hours earlier, Kwass told the paper.
After the collision, the driver allegedly stopped, got out, made a cellphone call and tried to speak to Davenport, Kwass told the Courier Times. The driver then left a few minutes later, before police and emergency crews arrived, according to the firm's investigation.
The firm also alleges the bus's rear emergency door was open at the time of the collision and was closed afterward. In a statement released by the firm, Kwass said the driver "after running over Mr. Davenport, moved impact evidence at the accident scene and then fled."
Davenport was taken to Abington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office ruled the death accidental, the result of multiple blunt force injuries, according to Patch.
No charges have been filed.
Neither police nor the DA's office nor the transportation company has released the driver's identity, Kwass told the Courier Times. Doylestown Township Police Chief Charles Zeigler did not respond to the Courier Times' Oct. 15 email seeking information, the paper reported. The department has not issued a press release about the collision.
DA spokesman Manuel Gamiz confirmed the active investigation but told Patch the office "cannot speculate on potential charges or discuss specifics of the case until criminal charges are filed."
"It's been two months and (authorities) haven't spoken (to the public), and minimally to the family," Kwass told the Courier Times.
Davenport was a lifelong Bucks County resident who retired from a career in sales and had been helping his son with a construction business, Kwass told the Courier Times. He and his wife, Dorothy, were married 60 years and had moved into Grundy Hall in July. Grundy Hall is a senior housing community at 1290 Almshouse Road managed by the Bucks County Housing Authority.
Anyone with information about the Aug. 12 collision or about Bucks County Transport buses at Grundy Hall can contact attorney David L. Kwass at 215-575-2978 or [email protected].
