A320 captain reported the tow bar pin sheared during pushback due to the tug suddenly stopping.

Attributes
ACN	1577181
Time
Date	201809
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 14337 Flight Crew Type 10588
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Critical Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

During pushback from gate in ZZZ; the tug suddenly stopped; causing [a] small bump to the airplane. Fortunately; no one was injured; however; the reason for the stop was due to a ZZZ airport operations vehicle crossing dangerously close behind us during the pushback. Because of the quick stop; the nose gear pin sheared and maintenance was called to do an inspection of the nose gear. No damage was found by maintenance.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported the tow bar pin sheared during pushback due to the tug suddenly stopping.

Narrative: During pushback from gate in ZZZ; the tug suddenly stopped; causing [a] small bump to the airplane. Fortunately; no one was injured; however; the reason for the stop was due to a ZZZ Airport Operations vehicle crossing dangerously close behind us during the pushback. Because of the quick stop; the nose gear pin sheared and Maintenance was called to do an inspection of the nose gear. No damage was found by Maintenance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.