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Camden New Journal - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 6 December 2007

Nanny killed in crash as she ‘darted’ across
five-lane road

‘Driver had no reason to expect someone to be running through traffic’

A nanny died after she was struck by a car while crossing a five-lane road in Swiss Cottage, an inquest heard on Thursday.
St Pancras Coroner’s Court was told how on a Sunday in March widowed Saleema Begum, 41, from Bangladesh, dashed across the busy Finchley Road junction.
Although four lanes of traffic were stationary or slow moving, she was hit by a car moving at normal driving speed in the bus lane.
Mrs Begum died later that day at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. In 2005 a pensioner died after being struck by a bus at the same spot.
The driver of the car involved, company director Piers Shepherd, was on his way from Chelsea to his fiancée’s family home when the accident happened.
He told the inquest he used the bus lane as traffic was heavy and it was a Sunday – motorists are only banned from bus lanes during the week.
He said that, following his initial sighting of Mrs Begum, the collision was “nearly instantaneous”.
“It was a nice and bright sunny day,” Mr Shepherd told the inquest. “I remember a car stopping to my right. I wondered whether something had alerted it. Then I saw the lady moving quite rapidly. I panicked. I could see the inevitable occurring...”
Eye-witness Monica Bloxam, an interpreter, told the inquest she saw Mrs Begum “darting” and “hopping” between cars.
“She was moving quite fast but I noticed a four-wheel drive coming quite fast,” she added. “It was very obvious they hadn’t seen each other and it was going to end very badly.
“At the moment of impact I shut my eyes. I didn’t want to look. The next thing I saw she was curled up in the road.”
She said the car involved was being driven at a safe, reasonable speed.
“I don’t think the driver can be blamed particularly,” Ms Bloxam added. “He couldn’t see her and had no reason to expect someone to be running through traffic.”
The inquest heard that an expert witness considered the driver involved would have been unable to avoid Mrs Begum.
Coroner Andrew Reid said: “The only conclusion I can return is that Saleema Begum died as a result of an accident when she failed to appreciate the approach of a vehicle and crossed its path.”
The cost of returning Mrs Begum’s body to Bangladesh was covered by her employers, a Kensington couple, after her dead husband’s family failed to respond to requests to contact the coroner’s office.

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