West End Bridge in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH – Lawyers are now blaming a Pittsburgh bar for the death of a woman who was left behind when cops arrested her friend for driving while impaired.
The Estate of Faye McCoy first sued the City of Pittsburgh, alleging police didn’t give her a ride after arresting Nakila Crawford-Creighton on Jan. 26, 2024. McCoy was visibly intoxicated, that suit says, and was left to walk on a cold winter night.
McCoy was struck and killed by a car in a hit-and-run. Cops said they tried to get McCoy to come with them but she refused, and a federal judge threw out the case in July.
Attorneys Todd Hollis and Vincent Colianni II are now suing Art’s Tavern, where the two women had been drinking. They filed suit last week in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, arguing Art’s Tavern overserved McCoy.
“She slurred her words, raised her voice inappropriately, and spoke incoherently to the bartender,” the lawsuit says.
“Art’s Tavern continued to serve McCoy after she was visibly intoxicated, rendering her incapable of protecting herself and of making reasonable decisions about her own degree of intoxication.”
A bar they visited after Art’s refused to serve McCoy, the suit says, and the women took off in a car across the West End Bridge. Crawford-Creighton struck a median, and cops responded.
The previous lawsuit called the intersection where McCoy was left possibly the most dangerous for pedestrians in Pittsburgh. The impact of the car hitting McCoy sent her over the edge of the bridge and she landed in a parking lot beneath it.
The suit says McCoy’s blood-alcohol level at the time of her death was 0.242%. Art’s Tavern is accused of violating the state’s Dram Shop law, and attorneys are seeking compensation under the Wrongful Death Act and Survival Act, plus punitive damages.
McCoy was 44 years old when she died and is survived by one child.
