WASHINGTON — The man who died after being struck by a bus on the National Mall Wednesday afternoon may have intentionally thrown himself under the bus.
Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, an OmniRide bus hit a Springfield, Virginia, man on 14th Street near the National Museum of African American History and Culture, police said.
The driver of the bus told investigators that he saw the man yell something right before the man did a “superman dive” under the bus while it was in motion, according to a police report.
When police arrived at the scene, they found the man underneath the rear wheels of the bus. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the report.
The OmniRide bus had eight people on board at the time of the incident, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, which operates OmniRide, said in a statement Thursday. The man who was killed was not a bus passenger. No one on board the bus was injured.
“Our thoughts are with the pedestrian and his family,” said PRTC Executive Director Bob Schneider in the statement.
PRTC said that the driver, who works for contractor First Transit Inc., is not expected to be cited in the crash. D.C. police inspected the bus involved in the accident and has since released it back to PRTC.
Police are still investigating the death; the medical examiner will perform an autopsy of the man’s body.
