Yahoo News Bus company fined £2.3 million over crash involving 'fatigued' driver left two dead
A bus company has been fined £2.3 million over a fatal crash involving a ‘fatigued’ driver in 2015 that left two people dead.
Midland Red (South) was found to have been responsible for ‘significant’ health and safety failings after Kailash Chander, 80, ploughed into a supermarket, killing a pedestrian and a passenger.
The company permitted Mr Chander to continue driving despite numerous warnings about his ability.
The Stockport-based company, which is part of the Stagecoach Group, apologised to the families of those killed and injured in the incident on October 3 ahead of the sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
The trial heard that Mr Chander mistook the accelerator for the brake before the collision, which killed primary school pupil Rowan Fitzgerald, seven, and 76-year-old pedestrian Dora Hancox.
The former mayor of Leamington Spa has been deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia.
An expert told the court Chander may have been suffering from undiagnosed dementia – without showing symptoms to colleagues – at the time of the crash.
The driver had been warned about his “erratic” driving by his employer after four crashes in the previous three years.
In a statement Rowan’s family described the decision to allow Mr Chander to continue driving as ‘total stupidity’.
His mother said: “He had a heart of gold – he was our sunshine on hard days. He made life full of laughter.
“The pain is indescribable – some days we feel paralysed. Some days we don’t want to live any more.”
Sentencing the company on Tuesday, Judge Paul Farrer QC described Mr Chander’s error as a “fundamentally tragic and fatal” act.
He added that the company “failed to follow policy” in the run-up to the fatal crash.
A driving assessment in April 2015 suggested Chander “may have been capable of driving to the satisfactory standard, if properly rested”.
But a warning to maintain his limited hours was “not enforced and almost immediately ignored” by depot managers.
Chander had “just worked five straight days and a working week of 75 hours” on the day of incident, and another driver told him he looked “knackered”.
