Youngsters leaving their school panto were scatter

Youngsters leaving their school panto were scattered across a
main road when the van they were travelling in was hit by a coach
which went through a red light at more than 40 mph, a court heard
today (Monday).

The van spun round twice, ‘the bonnet flew up and the back-
doors flew open’, said Anthony Scott-Gall, prosecuting at Isleworth
Crown Court.

Among the teenagers ‘ejected from the back of the van’,
was 16 year old Zoe Gregory who died of her injuries in hospital a few
hours later.

Miss Gregory, a pupil at Chiswick School where the youngsters
had been giving a charity performance of their panto, was the second
of four children of Mr and Mrs Gregory of 54 North Eyot Gdns, St
Peters Square, Hammersmith.

Coach driver Edward Gilbert, 50, of Blackmore Close, Ascot,
Berks, denies causing her death by reckless driving on December 12
last year.

‘He was driving at speed through a red light’, said counsel.

‘This was a gamble that had tragic consequences, a piece of arrant
recklessness on his part’.

After the crash, which happened on the Great Chertsey Rd at
its junction with Staveley Rd and Riverside Drive, Chiswick, he told
police ‘I came down the road and he went across in front of me’.

Later he made a statement claiming the lights on the main road were
green when he crossed the junction, said counsel.

‘The lights changed to red against the defendant a good 88
metres back from the stop-line’, said counsel adding there would be
evidence from the vehicle’s tachograph and skid and other marks found
at the scene.

‘He was doing about 41 mph down the Chertsey Rd and only when
he passed the stop line did he realise he was about to collide with
the van and then he swerved and applied his brakes.

The closing speed
as the bus hit the van was probably about 35 mph,’ said Mr Scott-Gall.

The van-driver, Adrian Harvey Thompson of Staveley Gdns,
Chiswick, said he had his girl-friend in the passenger seat and five
youngsters in the back.

‘I didn’t realise it was illegal to carry
passengers in the back’, he said.

‘When I came down Staveley Rd to
cross the Great Chertsey Rd, the lights were red so I stopped.

The
lights changed, I looked and proceeded across the junction.

All I
remember was just a big bang and the next thing I was on the grass
verge’.

The trial continues.

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.

ends*
C

O K
the parents are Mr and Mrs GARTH Gregory, ok?
CHEERS
byee
?