UK Bus Firm Fined For Letting Unfit Indian-origin Man Drive Leading to Accident, Deaths

A UK based bus company has been fined by the Birmingham Crown Court for letting an unfit Indian-origin driver to drive the bus, which caused a fatal accident resulting in two deaths in 2015. It was later revealed that the elderly driver was suffering from undiagnosed dementia.

Midland Red (South) bus company has been fined 2.3 million pounds for allowing a fatigued driver Kailash Chander, 80, to drive the bus despite many warnings regarding his erratic driving. The bus company had pleaded guilty last year for violating UK’s health and safety at work act while allowing Chander to drive, reported PTI.

The bus company has also been told to pay 7,214 pounds for the prosecution’s costs, added the report.

On Oct. 1, 2015, Chander had smashed the double-decker bus into a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Coventry when he mistook the accelerator for brakes. A seven-year-old schoolboy, Rowan Fitzgerald, and a 76-year-old pedestrian, Dora Hancox, died in the crash. Fitzgerald was sitting at the front of the upper deck of the bus and succumbed to head injuries caused by the crash, while Hancox died after being hit by the bus and a falling lamppost.

While pronouncing the order Judge Paul Farrer QC said, “A moving bus is a potentially lethal piece of machinery and [Midland Red] should have been making sure their drivers were fit to drive at all times,” reported mirror.co.uk.

Keeping Chander’s mental state as a fact, the court on Nov.27, also gave a two-year supervision order to him.

In September this year, the court had found Chander unfit to plead or stand trial at Birmingham Crown Court as he was diagnosed with dementia.

He had been through suicidal thoughts, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and was very preoccupied with the crash, according to an earlier BBC report.

The Mirror quoted Midland Red Phil Medlicott as saying outside the court, “None of us at our company will ever forget the terrible events of October 3, 2015. We are deeply sorry for the heartache of everyone affected, particularly the families of Rowan Fitzgerald and Dora Hancox.”

He further said, “Safety is and always will be our first concern, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. We have made it our continuing priority to work very closely with the authorities to help fully understand and learn detailed lessons from what has happened.”