Inset: Montrell Pharm (Milwaukee County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Pharm driving a bus with his eyes closed (Milwaukee County Transit System).
A Wisconsin bus driver will spend two years in prison for falling asleep and killing a septuagenarian pedestrian on Christmas Day.
In late January, Montrell Pharm, 53, pleaded no contest to one count each of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle and reckless driving causing great bodily harm, court records show.
Pharm was sentenced by Milwaukee County Court Judge David Swanson on Thursday to two years in prison on each count to run concurrently, or at the same time. The relatively brief prison stint will be followed by three years of extended supervision for the incident that took the life of 79-year-old Robert Clemons in 2024.
On the day in question, just after 11 p.m., an officer with the Milwaukee Police Department was dispatched to North 47th Street and Villard Avenue in response to a call about a fatal crash, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Milwaukee-based Fox affiliate WITI.
The responding officer found two damaged vehicles in the roadway – a bus and a truck – as well as a far more chilling sight. The charging document describes a trail of blood “that led on an angle to where the bus had stopped.” The bus itself was damaged on “its front end,” and the passenger side windshield was “broken,” law enforcement said.
Investigators then spoke with the truck’s owner, who identified the victim as his grandfather. The survivor said he and Clemons had been working together to fix the truck, which was parked on the street.
At the time of the crash, the pair was walking on the driver’s side of the truck when the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus slammed into them and their vehicles, according to the complaint.
Clemons was run over and killed. His grandson rushed over, in vain, to try to get the driver to stop because the victim was still “under the bus” as it moved, according to the complaint.
Due to his own injuries from the crash, however, the grandson was quickly fatigued – though other pedestrians were able to flag the bus down and eventually get it to finally stop roughly a block away.
Clemons died in the street after being removed from the bus, police said.
Investigators later reviewed footage from a camera mounted onboard the MCTS bus, according to the charging document. That footage showed the bus primarily driving in a bike lane, then crashing into one of the parked vehicles and pushing it into the other vehicle before striking a pedestrian, police allege. Then the bus is seen veering out of the bike lane and into the main lane, briefly stopping and starting up again before parking near the corner of North 48th Street and Villard.
A second camera on the bus facing the driver showed Pharm repeatedly closing his eyes or falling asleep, while the bus was stopped and while it was moving, according to law enforcement.
This second collection of footage also showed the defendant making slight adjustments on the steering wheel with his eyes closed, police said. At one point, Pharm was seen being pushed forward as the driver’s compartment appeared to shake. Then, the driver is seen taking the steering wheel again, stopping the bus, starting forward again, and then pulling the parking brake, according to the complaint.
During a custodial interview, Pharm described a four-day series of 14-hour shifts with one 8 1/2-hour shift in between. The night before the incident, the defendant allegedly said he had slept only six hours.
Still, Pharm said he recalled “looking straight ahead, and he had a clear path, and that he was good,” according to the complaint. The driver allegedly said he felt ashamed about what happened and suggested the impact came out of nowhere. At the same time, Pharm made various health-related comments, asserting that he is “pre-diabetic” but lacks health insurance and is not properly medicated, offering the idea that his body might have simply shut down that night.
The defendant lost his job with the MCTS shortly after the fatal crash.
During his sentencing hearing, Pharm appeared contrite, according to a courtroom report by Milwaukee-based ABC affiliate WISN.
“There aren’t enough words to say to begin to heal your pain,” the defendant said, addressing the victim’s family. “I pray and sincerely ask for your forgiveness. This was an unintentional accident.”
The state showed the video of Pharm with his eyes closed on Thursday.
“What is concerning from the state’s perspective, among other things, is there isn’t a movement to get out of the vehicle to check to see what has gone on. ‘Have I hit a person?'” a prosecutor said.
