PITTSBURGH — Two Pittsburgh-area transit drivers have been charged with recklessly driving side by side — so close that their buses scraped — before one of the empty, off-duty vehicles crashed over an interstate embankment.

Attorneys for the Port Authority of Allegheny County drivers, Juliann Maier, 46, of Ross Township and Thomas Frauens, 56, of Pittsburgh, have previously denied the drivers behaved recklessly before Maier’s bus crashed Sept. 22. Maier’s attorney planned a news conference to address the charges and Frauen’s attorney, Bruce Carsia, told The Associated Press his client “had nothing to do with the accident.”

“I was surprised that they filed criminal charges,” Carsia said. “I believe this was an accident and that the female bus driver lost control of her bus.”

But Port Authority police said surveillance video and tracking equipment shows the buses were driving up to 65 mph in a 55 mph zone, and paint scrapes on both buses suggest the vehicles bumped or scraped one another before the 2 p.m. crash on Interstate 279, according to affidavits.