11 Investigates: Pittsburgh employee sounding alarm about dire conditions of city vehicles

PITTSBURGH — A city of Pittsburgh employee is speaking out about the condition of city vehicles.

He believes some of them shouldn’t even be on the road.

Over the winter, Chief Investigator Rick Earle broke the story that a third of the city salt trucks were out for repairs.

And now Rick is talking to a city worker about the condition of the aging fleet and taking those concerns to city leaders.

That employee agreed to speak to us as long as we concealed his identity for fear of retribution.

He told Earle that when he gets into some of those city trucks, he says he’s not only worried about his safety but others around him.

Worker: They’re just not safe.

Earle: What is your concern? What are you worried about?

Worker: I’m worried about someone possibly getting hurt or killed in the line of duty.

This public works employee told Earle that he and others are being forced to drive unsafe trucks, some more than 20 years old.

“I never thought working for the city of Pittsburgh trucks would be this bad. These trucks don’t belong on the road. I wouldn’t drive them through a scrap yard,” said the worker.

The worker gave us pictures of rusted-out wheel wells, corrosion and rust under a truck, busted out tail lights, a torn and worn interior, and a salt truck that lost its wheels.

He also showed us a picture of a metal plate that was welded to the bed of a pick up truck to cover up a hole.

Over the winter, 11 Investigates broke the story that a third of the city’s salt trucks were broken during a snowstorm.

That hampered the road-clearing response to the storm.

Earle took the driver’s concerns to city officials, including Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak.

Earle: They’re frankly afraid to drive them. They’re scared for their safety while driving the vehicles. Are you concerned about that?

Pawlak: Absolutely. I mean, we take the safety of all city employees very seriously.

We showed the pictures the employee provided us to Pawlak.

“If they have those concerns, they are welcome to bring them to us and we will sincerely evaluate it. If something is not safe, we’ll take it off the road,” he said.

But the employee said supervisors in DPW are well aware of the issues.

“The deputy director, the director, they all know about how bad these trucks are. They know. They know,” said the employee.

Pawlak said the problem began 20 years ago, when the city was declared financially distressed.

That led to layoffs, cutbacks, and little money for vehicles.

“We’re digging our way out of a hole that started 20 years before that when we were spending basically nothing on our fleet,” said Pawlak.

But it’s not just public works.

Police, fire and EMS are all dealing with aging fleets.

On a recent cardiac arrest call, an ambulance experienced a mechanical issue on scene.

Medics were able to treat the patient.

Another ambulance was called in to transport the patient to the hospital, and a Public Safety spokesperson said there was no delay.

We also spoke with Paramedics Union President Jon Atkinson.

“We have vehicles that have braking issues...we have bald tires...we have mechanical issues. You get a call, you go out and the truck won’t start,” Atkinson, of the medics union.

11 Investigates obtained the list of every city vehicle, approximately 1300.

A third of them are more than a decade old.

Four EMS vehicles are more than 20 years old.

One has been in service for 43 years.

Nine public works vehicles are more than 20 years old.

The oldest is from 1999.

“Catastrophic would be the correct word,” said Pittsburgh City Councilman Anthony Coghill, who has been sounding the alarm about city vehicles for several years now.

Since taking office in 2022, the Gainey administration has used 20 million from the American Rescue Plan and another 20 million in city funds to buy new vehicles, for a total of 40 million.

And in 2023, the city bought 121 vehicles, the most in two decades.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is in terms of making these investments,” said Pawlak.

But Councilman Coghill said it’s not enough.

And he believes they should have spent more of the 335 million dollar rescue plan on vehicles.

“I will repeat this till I’m blue in the face that we blew our chance to up our fleet through that federal money,” said Coghill.

“If Councilman Coghill was interested in spending more money on vehicles, frankly, he could have attended any ELA (Equipment Leasing Authority) board meetings in the last two years, which he’s a member of, but hasn’t been participating,” said Pawlak.

Coghill defended his decision to step away from the ELA.

He said he had to persuade members to buy new vehicles, including 60 new police cars.

He said he became frustrated by what he called a lack of interest by Pawlak and others in purchasing new vehicles.

Coghill said the city should be spending 20 million a year on vehicles, yet they only budgeted approximately 3 million or less for each of the next five years.

And that’s little comfort for this worker who’s now speaking out about the condition of the vehicles he’s forced to drive.

“I’m putting my life and the life of the safety of my crew at risk as well as the people on the road,” said the worker.

Sources tell 11 Investigates that another city worker recently refused to drive a truck because of safety issues.

The union that represents drivers then got involved, according to the source, and the worker was eventually given another truck to drive.

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