Pittsburgh City Council responds to 11 Investigates exclusive reporting on aging fleet of vehicles

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh City Council is responding to an exclusive 11 Investigates report that uncovered the city’s aging fleet of vehicles.

Council held a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon to hear directly from police, fire and EMS. And one council member suggested a new, but likely controversial, approach to solving the vehicle crisis.

“I‘m not going to paint as rosy a picture as the police bureau. I’ll start by saying our oldest vehicle is 37 years old,” Pittsburgh Fire Bureau Assistant Chief Brian Kokkila said.

From the fire bureau to EMS, leaders are sounding the alarm about aging fleets and a lack of new vehicles.

“We have vehicles, if you were going by mileage, they’d be over 300,000 miles, multiple of them, so they are on their last legs,” EMS Deputy Chief Jeff Tremel said.

And both Kokkila and Tremel said EMS and fire units have broken down on calls.

It’s a problem decade in the making, when the city was declared financially distressed, and there was little money for vehicles.

11 Investigates has exposed some of the problems and safety concerns with the aging fleet, like half of the vehicles being over mileage or over-aged.

Councilman Anthony Coghill has said the city should have used more of the American Rescue Plan funds for vehicles. And he says the city should be spending $20 million a year on vehicles, but has only budgeted three million or less for the next five years.

“When I saw the new budget from this administration for the next five years, I just threw my hands up and thought ‘this is not serious,’” Coghill said.

Councilwoman Barb Warwick suggested getting the hospitals to pitch in for new ambulances, but the public safety director suggested that may not be legal.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail Smith proposed for the first time freezing all grants to pay for new vehicles.

“I want us to do that, going forward, and sit down and have a conversation about what we need to do to get this fleet up and running the way it should be and needs to be,” Kail-Smith said. “Maybe we won’t get it perfect, but we can at least start this year.”

The other big issue, even if the council comes up with the money to buy new ambulances and fire trucks, it will take up to two years to get them built and delivered.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

©2025 Cox Media Group