A man said he was badly injured while riding the Monongahela Incline earlier this week.

Denny Pirring has lived on Mount Washington his entire life. He’s ridden the Mon Incline “too many times to count,” he said.

The unique transportation method has been shut down since Tuesday and Pirring thinks he knows why.

He was riding it to the top of Mount Washington Tuesday afternoon.

“It stopped a couple inches from the top and it seemed like it was trying to push it up but it didn’t,” Pirring recalled.

Pirring said that created a four- or five-inch gap between the car and the ground. But he said they should meet up flush.

“Well, I’m in a wheelchair and I couldn’t get out. What was happening was my tires kept getting stuck,” Pirring said.

He had to rock back and forth for close to five minutes until his aid was able to pull him out.

In the process, he said, he cut his arm on the car door.

While all that happened, Pirring said two Pittsburgh Regional Transit employees just stood by.

“When I come out of the car, finally get out of the car, the blood was dripping off my arm onto the floor and they saw it and they didn’t say anything— nothing— and I my aid got a little upset and said, ‘Can we please get something to wipe this up?’ and they gave me a paper towel and I wiped it up,” Pirring said.

A PRT spokesperson said in a statement, “We closed the incline after a brake resistor and the motor controller unexpectedly failed. The incline cars were docked at the stations at the time of the incident but there were riders inside, so it’s possible this man was among them. However, unless he knows something we don’t know, he did not cause it to be shut down.”

Regardless, Pirring is hopeful the Incline can reopen soon.

“Do I think it’s safe to ride? I don’t know. I just wish they could fix it because it helps Mount Washington dramatically. When it closes the stores up here hurt, the bars up here hurt,” Pirring said.

Channel 11 reached out to PRT asking when the Mon Incline might reopen but so far has not heard back.

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