A bus driver who killed a teenager when he ploughe
A bus driver who killed a teenager when he ploughed into a car packed full of lads returning from a funfair outing was jailed for ten months by an Old Bailey judge today (Fri).
Christopher Brown, 32, swerved across two lanes of traffic without indicating and smashed into a Vauxhall Nova that was ‘pootling’ south along Purley Way, Croydon.
Five young men, all under 20, were in the Nova as it span across the road and ricocheted off a line of railings on a traffic island.
The railings penetrated the rear right passenger window and Alexander Sale, 17, was killed instantly, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Sale, an apprentice carpenter, and his four friends were returning from McDonalds after a trip to Thorpe Park.
When interviewed by police, Brown blamed the Nova’s driver, claiming he had been cut up.
Brown stood in the dock in his blue Metrobus uniform as Mr Recorder Geoffrey Nice, QC, said the tragic smash was a ‘momentary errors of judgment to which all of us may ourselves be subject.
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But the judge added: ‘You were clearly unaware of the car in the off-side lane that was travelling at a proper and reasonable speed.
‘The errors that you committed were not errors in failing to see the turn.
That was unfortunate but we can all make that kind of mistake.
‘The error was in turning right where you should not have done.
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Prosecutor Mr Richard Wormold told the court Brown’s ten tonne Leyland Links bus was empty as he cruised down Purley Way shortly after midnight on August 15 last year.
Father of two Brown wanted to turn the Links around to return to the depot in Orpington where his company Metrobus are based.
He initially turned left to use an area of wasteland known locally as the ‘Water Palace’.
But the area had been turned into a building site so Brown swerved across the dual carriageway with the intention of turning right.
Travelling at about 30 mph down the inside lane of the road was Alexander Sale and four of his friends in a white Vauxhall Nova.
Mr Wormold said the first that those in the car knew ‘about the danger that was looming’ was when the Nova’s driver Roy Bedford, 18, saw the bus in front of him in the left hand lane.
‘When he was in the area of the slip road he saw the bus indicate not to the right but to the left.
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Mr Bedford said in his statement: ‘As I started to go past the bus it pulled slightly to the left and then it turned right into the nearside of my car.
‘The bus hit my car at about the front passenger door and the windscreen shattered and we were pushed into the railings.
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Mr Wormald said: ‘The accident was due wholly to fault and driving of Christopher Brown.
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Arsenal fan Mr Sale suffered fatal head injuries when the railings smashed through the right rear passenger window.
The Nova bounced away from the island and eventually span to a halt in the middle of the left hand carriageway.
Paramedics on the scene attempted to resuscitate Mr Sale but he never regained consciousness.
Mr Sale of Harrow Road, Warlingham, was dead on arrival at Thornton Heath’s Mayday Hospital.
Brown, of Kingfield Cottages, Holybush Lane, Chelsfield, Kent, admitted causing death by dangerous driving.
Speaking outside court Alex’s mother Cathy said her son was ‘outgoing and had lots of friends.
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She said: ‘I don’t really know what I wanted to come out of today.
He has put us through ten months of hell.
It just dragged on.
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His father Kerry added: ‘Alex was a good lad.
I would have been unhappy if Brown had walked away, and I think the sentence was fair.
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PC Jon Webb, the accident investigator, said outside court: ‘This was a just a bunch of reasonable lads who had been out having a respectable evening of fun.
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ends
