CCTV shows moment bus driver, 77, ploughs into shops killing two people
WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: Confronting video footage has been released, showing the moment an 80-year-old driver crashed a double-decker bus into a supermarket, killing a child and elderly pedestrian.
Kailash Chander, who was deemed medically unfit to stand trial due to post-traumatic stress disorder, ploughed his vehicle into the side of a Sainsbury’s supermarket in the English town of Coventry in October, 2015.
Passenger Rowan Fitzgerald, 7, and pedestrian Dora Hancox, 76, were both killed in the crash.
A court heard that the then-77-year-old had been working three consecutive 75-hour weeks and ignored 24 warning letters about his driving at the time of the incident.
West Midlands Police this week released the vision of the fatal crash, showing the bus veer across the road, narrowly missing several pedestrians before crashing into a shopfront.
Prosecutors said the former mayor of Lamington Spa mistook the accelerator for the brake, resulting him driving “full throttle” for almost 82 metres.
The footage shows one bystander frantically approaching a large group of pedestrians, ushering them out of the path of the bus just moments before it ploughs into the store.
Jurors deliberated for three hours before finding the 80-year-old was driving dangerously when he caused the two deaths and injuries to two other passengers.
Given his mental fitness prevented him from standing trial, jurors were asked not to return guilty verdicts. They were instead asked to rule on whether “he did the acts”.
Mr Chander will be sentenced on October 26.
