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Pedestrian killed by bus ‘had right of way’
Inquest told driver faces charge after accident
A CHARITY worker who died when she was struck by a bus in Archway had been laughing and joking with her husband just hours earlier after taking the day off work to keep a hospital appointment.
Katherine Gualan, 50, was killed when a bus hit her as she crossed the junction of Highgate Hill and MacDonald Road in December last year.
The bus driver has since been fired and faces a charge of driving without due care at Westminster Magistrates’ Court next week.
Mrs Gualan, a co-ordinator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind from Carlton Road, Finsbury Park, died from brain injuries after being taken to Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.
At a St Pancras inquest two weeks ago, coroner Dr Andrew Reid recorded a verdict of accidental death.
The inquest heard expert evidence that Mrs Gualan had right of way, having already started making her way across the road when the bus turned into MacDonald Road, where there is a busy bus garage.
PC Alice Judd, who investigated the collision, reading from the Highway Code, said: “If pedestrians have started to cross they have priority so drivers should give way.”
In a statement made to detectives, the driver said he had not seen Mrs Gualan.
Although CCTV did not record the accident itself, footage from the moments leading up to it were used by detectives to piece together how the accident happened.
PC Judd speculated that Mrs Gualan would have been in the road for around two seconds before the driver turned, “and therefore visible to him”.
She added: “As the bus starts to turn you can see Mrs Gualan near the edge of the kerb. You can just about make out a figure very close to the bus.
“Then a handbag can be seen after the collision flying through the air.”
She said the bus had been in the general traffic lane, turning at the last moment, instead of in the bus lane more commonly used.
“If the bus driver had used the right-hand-turn lane in the proper manner he would have had to reduce his speed to less than 10 miles per hour, which is what he was travelling at,” she added.
Spanish-born Rodrigo Gualan described how he and his wife had been laughing together on the morning of her death after she took the day off for a medical appointment.
“We were joking. She had to go and see her GP so we were having a laugh about things. She called me at 10.10am that day, told me everything was fine, just going to the Whittington Hospital.
“Then I got a call from police saying she’d had an accident.”
Speaking after the inquest, Mrs Gualan’s family indicated they felt safety at the junction should be improved, but are awaiting the results of the court hearing. |
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