Mechanic fatally crushed by school bus while working in a Westmoreland County garage

A mechanic was killed after the school bus he was working on fell on top of him in New Florence Borough, the coroner said. 

The Westmoreland County Coroner's Office said Barry Barker of Ligonier was working on a school bus in a Lodestar Bus Lines garage when he was killed around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. 

"So around 9:35 in the morning we received a phone call from an employee at a bus garage that basically had said that they had a mechanic that was laying inside the garage, that was unresponsive, and it appears he may have had an incident where a bus drove over him," said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani. 

Investigators said Barker was working on a school bus that was reportedly having brake problems. While it's still unclear exactly what happened, police said investigators found cutting tools near Barker that appeared to have been used during the repair.

Police are also trying to determine how the bus began moving, but they do know that the vehicle crushed Barker before slowly rolling across 13th Street and coming to rest in a nearby yard.

"It just seems like a horrific tragedy and a pure accident," Limani said. "From my understanding, he has been a mechanic for quite a long time, and he has been at that garage for an extended period of time. I feel awful that we have to go in and do investigations like this, but right now, there's just no reason to think this was anything other than a horrific accident."

The cause and manner of death are pending an autopsy and toxicology results, the coroner's office said. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.