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 home from a day trip was jailed

Christopher Brown, 32, swerved across two lanes of traffic without indicating and smashed into a Vauxhall Nova that was ‘pootling’ south along the Purley Way in Croydon.

Five young men, all under 20, were in the Nova as it spun 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.

Mr Sale, an apprentice carpenter, and his four friends were returning from MacDonalds after a trip to Thorpe Park.

But when he was interviewed by police Brown lied by telling officers that the Nova had cut him up.

Passing sentence, the Judge, Mr Recorder Geoffrey Nice, QC, told Brown, stood in the dock wearing his blue Metrobus driver’s uniform: ‘

Prosecutor Mr XXX Wormald 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.

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 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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Another passenger in the Nova told officers: ‘We were just pootling down the road.

I suddenly saw the front of the bus swinging to the right.

There was no indication of it moving to right.

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Mr Wormald added: ‘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 rushed to hospital but nothing could be done to save him.

He was pronounced dead on his arrival at Thornton Heath’s Mayday Hospital.

Brown, of Kingfield Cottages, Holybush Lane, Chelsfield, Kent, pleaded guilty to one charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

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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Kerry Sale, Alexander’s father was unconvinced by Brown’s admission, and speaking outside court, described him as ‘remorseless.

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ends