BANGOR – The bus accident that claimed the life of an 82-year-old city bus driver Wednesday remains under investigation by city and state officials.

As usually is the case where workplace fatalities are involved, the investigation likely will not be wrapped up for another few weeks, Assistant City Manager Robert Farrar said Friday.

Participating in the effort to determine what went wrong are the Bangor Police Department accident reconstruction team and criminal investigation division, as well as Maine State Police commercial vehicle enforcement and the state Bureau of Labor Standards.

Police say Ralph Scott was driving the Mount Hope Avenue route about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday when he got off the bus in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart store on Springer Drive, near the Bangor Mall, and then noticed that the bus was slowly moving.

In his attempt to stop the bus, Scott got in front of the vehicle, which then rolled into a parked van, pinning Scott between the two vehicles, police said earlier this week. The lone passenger aboard the bus at the time was not injured.

Scott was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he died about 5 p.m.

An initial investigation did not uncover any mechanical problems with the bus.

Scott began driving a bus for the city in 1986, Farrar said.

Farrar said Scott was well-liked by passengers as well as his colleagues, several of whom met Thursday with grief counselors provided by the city.

Scott’s death marks the BAT Community Connector’s first employee fatality since the bus system was established in 1972, BAT Superintendent Joe McNeil said Friday.

His death was the third involving an on-duty city employee since July 1, 1980, when a ramp foreman at Bangor International Airport was killed by debris after a helicopter’s rotor blades struck a hangar. The second was an auto body specialist who died Dec. 30, 2004, when the bucket on a small loader he was repairing came down, fracturing his spine.

According to McNeil, BAT bus drivers must hold a valid commercial driver’s license as well as an endorsement to carry passengers.

McNeil said Scott was a popular driver who had been driving for the public transit system for 20 years. Though he spent most of that time on the Mount Hope run, he also occasionally filled in for drivers on other routes.

McNeil also said Scott was the employee with the longest tenure – and the shortest. Scott, he said, resigned just two weeks into the job. He had a change of heart, however, and returned for almost 21 more years.

Scott’s funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Brookings-Smith Funeral Home in Bangor, with the Rev. John Wingert of St. John’s Episcopal Church presiding.

Surviving family members include Scott’s wife, Beverly, a daughter, two sons, a stepdaughter, a stepson, a sister and their families.