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Three-lane stretch where the accident occured |
Pensioner crushed to death by bus
Inquest told how driver failed to spot 72-year-old crossing road because he was changing lanes
A HOMELESS pensioner was “mown down” at a notorious Swiss Cottage junction by a bus driver who failed to see him because he was checking traffic as he changed lane, an inquest heard.
Driver Saleh Suhel, 31, who was last year fined £500 and disqualified from driving for 12 months after being found guilty of careless driving, heard two bus passengers describe how Bryan Cann, 72, was hit by his Number 31 bus as it negotiated the three-lane stretch of Adelaide Road between the intersection with Finchley and Avenue Road in November 2006.
Mr Suhel explained that he was checking his wing mirrors as he switched from the outside lane towards the Adelaide Road bus stop and failed to see Mr Cann, who witnesses said had his right hand raised to signal his presence as he crossed the road.
Lecturer Greg Fisher, who was on the bus, described seeing Mr Cann set off on a path across the front of the bus as it “has to negotiate over to the left-hand side to make the
turn – not a particularly safe situation”.
He said: “The bus was moving very slowly. My assumption was that the bus would stop. I lost sight of him momentarily [but] then the man was directly in front of the windshield. He looked up... and the bus simply mowed him down.”
The vehicle did not stop for at least 20 yards despite the shouts of passengers who could feel it going over something, he added.
Asked by the coroner how he had failed to spot the pensioner, who was not on a pedestrian crossing, Mr Suhel said: “I was looking over my shoulder to see my blind spot on the left.”
Analysis of CCTV footage allowed investigators to describe the accident in second-by-second detail from the moment that Mr Cann stepped off the Number 46 bus at 9.23am, and started to cross the road to the point 11 seconds later when his hat and wooden walking stick were left on the roadside as passers-by rushed to his body.
Police also used footage from “cab cameras” in other buses on the route to compare the behaviour of different drivers at the junction, which requires buses to turn right into Adelaide Road, then cross several lanes to their left to reach the stop.
Investigator PC Richard Easton said: “CCTV from the (31) bus shows the driver [Mr Suhel] looking to his left periodically and is of some use in explaining the mechanics of what happened.
“He spends the majority of the time looking diagonally behind him. [CCTV from other bus cabs] shows most [other drivers] spent most of the time looking forward with glances to the rear rather than, sadly, the opposite.”
At St Pancras Coroner’s Court on Friday, coroner Dr Andrew Reid recorded a verdict of accidental death, and chose not to issue a report on the traffic controls at the junction after hearing from police.
Mr Suhel was found guilty of driving without due care and attention at Westminster Magistrates court in December. He was fined £500 and disqualified from driving for 12 months. |
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