‘London’s worst bus driver’ avoids jail for causing death of Windrush pensioner

An elderly driver who kept working on the buses after a series of incidents has escaped jail for causing the death of 83-year-old woman.

Partially deaf Ozdemir Zia, 77, hit Edna McLean when she was crossing Vincent Road outside Woolwich Arsenal station in southeast London on 11 September 2021.

Zia used a hearing loop and Turkish interpreter as the Old Bailey heard he had been allowed to continue driving despite a previous conviction for crashing into another bus and six other incidents of bad driving.

Mrs McLean was taken to hospital by air ambulance but never regained consciousness and died on September 13 2021.

Zia denied causing Mrs McLean’s death by careless driving but was convicted by a jury.

He was today sentenced to a 15 month jail sentence suspended for two years by judge Nigel Lickley, KC.

The judge said: ‘You have heard what has been said and how your behaviour has been regarded.

‘Ms Mclean was the core of the family.

‘You are responsible for the pain the family are experiencing and will continue to experience.

‘The weather was fine and dry, the overall traffic volume was said to be light.’

Judge Lickley told Zia that Ms Mclean was ‘visible’ and ‘there to be seen’.

‘You told police you did not see Ms McLean initially, when you did you braked,’ the judge continued.

‘The reason you did not see Ms McLean is you did not take care. In short you failed to mitigate the blind spots created by the structure of the bus.

‘The blind spots, the features of the design of the bus create blind spots for drivers.

‘To mitigate, that is reduce the effects of the blind spots, movement is necessary to see sufficiently.

‘The available CCTV reveals you made no movement of your head to mitigate the blind spot, if you had I am satisfied you would have seen Ms McLean and stopped.

‘There is no criticism of your speed, you did look in your mirrors and you had passengers on your bus to consider.

‘The pre sentence report dated 20 February 2025, you have accepted you should have taken more care on the day in question, you have expressed what is said to be genuine remorse.

‘As the report states, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions for the rest of your life.

‘Your previous conviction is in my judgement a significant aggravating factor, Ms McLean was a vulnerable road user and there were passengers in your vehicle.

‘You are not a risk or danger to the public

‘You made a momentary but serious error.

‘You did not intend to hurt her let alone kill her, I accept you had other things to consider as you drove towards Ms McLean.’

Jurors heard Zia’s view was obscured by another bus when he began turning his double decker right into Vincent Road.

He saw the pensioner at the last second and slammed on his brakes but it was too late.

Prosecutor Nadeem Holland said he should have waited until the bus had moved away before completing the manoeuvre and shifted in his chair to eliminate his blind spot.

Zia did not give evidence but told police at the scene: ‘People do not always look before crossing the road.’

The jury was not told Zia had a previous conviction for careless driving in 2018 when he injured passengers by crashing into another bus.

He was fired by Stagecoach, one of the operators of Transport for London buses, because of his conviction.

But he was back behind the wheel again after he applied for a job instead with Go Ahead, a different provider.

It was said that Go Ahead did not know about his previous conviction.

There were six other incidents of bad driving reported to his employer but Zia did not lose his job.

Mrs McLean’s widower Clarence McLean and her son Patrick Gordon both gave victim impact statements.

Mr McLean said: ‘She loved her children and grandchildren deeply and was a popular woman who had an abundance of friends, my wife was someone who loved life and we all miss her so much.

‘During the first two years after her death, I would dream of her almost every night, even now I still have regular dreams of her, it has completely disrupted my life.

‘When that bus driver hit her with his bus it was as if my family were also hit.

‘I know death is always hard to come to terms with but it hurts more when it is not from natural causes.

‘I don’t know if I can forgive this man because I will have to live the rest of my life knowing her death could have been avoided.’

Mr Gordon said: ‘My mother came to England in the Windrush era, she made a wonderful life for herself and her family.

‘My mother loved cricket and football, we would watch test matches between England and West Indies and Premiership football on TV.

‘My mother had strong values instilled in us from an early age – treating people well and having compassion for others.

‘He has shown no compassion, he has never given any indication he is sorry for causing the death of our mother.

‘Not once has the accused reached out with sympathy, they have behaved as if nothing has happened, there have been numerous chances for them to show empathy or a conscience but they have done nothing.

‘Birthdays, Mother’s days, Easters and Christmas are now days of sadness for my family, they used to bring such joy.

‘There is no closure for me and my family – we will never recover from her killing.

‘Today, I want you Mr Zia to understand the absolute devastation you have caused for our family.

‘I hold you responsible for her death.’

Mr Holland told the court earlier that eyewitness Nick Poyntz had heard the noise of the bus hitting Mrs Mclean and looked around and saw her ‘body travelling through the air.’

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Mrs McLean falling onto the double yellow lines after being hit by the bus before members of the public rushed to help her.

Mr Holland said: ‘The defendant was interviewed at the scene by PC Bukenya.

‘The defendant said he had not seen Mrs McLean until immediately before the collision at which point he applied the brakes.’

Mr Holland said that experts have reached the view that the defendant began turning right while his view into Vincent Road was still obscured by the bus.

They said he was well below the speed limit and his speed was not inappropriate.

Mr Holland said: ‘Although the pillar inside the bus to the right hand side of the front windscreen would have obscured the driver’s view of Mrs McLean, that could have been mitigated by the driver moving his head and upper body.

‘Having said that, such movements would not have completely eliminated the blind spot.

‘It is the prosecution’s case that the CCTV footage demonstrates that the defendant’s driving fell below the standard one would expect of the reasonable, careful and competent driver.

‘The defendant did not take sufficient steps to cater for the possibility of pedestrians crossing Vincent Road as he turned right into the road.’

The driver’s view was obscured by another bus, along with his wing mirrors and a lamppost as he began turning right into Vincent Road.

A report from an investigator at the scene read: ‘I discovered that the blind spot caused by both the offside mirrors and a curb was extremely obtrusive and that even with the amount of body movement shown. I was still unable to eliminate the blind spot.’

‘The offside mirror and blind spot required large movements of the upper body and head to fully alleviate it.’

But Zia could have improved his vision by making exaggerated body movements ‘none of which were seen on the CCTV camera’, jurors heard.

Zia, of Weyman Road, Kidbrooke, denied but was convicted of causing death by careless driving.

He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years, 12 rehabilitation activity requirement days, an obligatory suspended licence for three years and he must take an extended driving test if he wants to drive again.

ENDS