New CCTV footage released as court rules elderly bus driver with dementia was driving dangerously before deadly supermarket crash

An elderly bus driver diagnosed with dementia was driving dangerously when he smashed into a supermarket, killing a woman and a seven-year-old boy, a jury has ruled.

Kailash Chander, 80, mistook the accelerator for the brake before the crash in Coventry in October 2015. He had worked 225 hours in the previous three weeks, a court heard.

CCTV footage released by police on Tuesday shows people fleeing from the bus as it careers along the pavement and smashes into the city-centre Sainsbury's.

Primary school pupil Rowan Fitzgerald, who was sitting at the front of the upper deck, died of a head injury after the bus hit the supermarket at “full throttle”. Pedestrian Dora Hancox, 76, died from multiple injuries after being struck by the double-decker and a lamppost that it knocked over.

Mr Chander, who was 77 at the time of the crash, was ruled mentally unfit to stand trial due to post-traumatic stress disorder and frontal lobe dementia.

He was also excused from attending a “finding-of-facts” trial after psychiatrists said he would be unable to give evidence or instruct lawyers with regards to the crash.

Mr Chander had been warned about his “erratic” driving by bus company Midland Red (South) after four crashes in the previous three years, it emerged at a six-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard.

The driver was the subject of eight warning letters triggered by a “spy-in-the-cab” telematics system installed by the firm to monitor braking, acceleration and speeding in 2014.

Seven months before the fatal crash, Mr Chander was referred to the Midland Red's driving school, which sent an anonymous assessor to report on his driving.

The instructor said the journey was “uncomfortable and erratic”, with constant heavy braking and driving which “would not have been good enough” to pass an initial training driving test.

Stockport-based Midland Red, part of Stagecoach, pleaded guilty last year to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act by permitting Mr Chander to continue driving despite warnings about his competence and fatigue.

Mr Chander, a former mayor of Leamington Spa, had retired as a bus driver 12 years in 2003 but returned to work casual shifts. He had worked an average of 75 hours a week in the three weeks leading up to the accident, in which he drove “full throttle” for almost 82 metres.

A pre-trial hearing was told he may have been suffering from undiagnosed dementia – without showing symptoms to colleagues – at the time of the crash.

Jurors deliberated for around three hours on Tuesday before finding that Mr Chander was driving dangerously when he caused the two deaths. The crash also inflicted serious injuries on two other passengers, including Rowan’s eight-year-old cousin.

Jurors were not asked to return verdicts of guilty because Mr Chander was deemed mentally unfit to take part in the hearing. They were instead invited to rule on whether he “did the acts” alleged.

Defence lawyers acting for Mr Chander had argued his conduct was careless, rather than dangerous, because it did not fall far below the standard expected of a competent driver.

But prosecutor Andrew Thomas told the jury: “In the scale of driver errors, nothing could be more obvious, and nothing could be more devastating, than putting your foot down on the throttle pedal and accelerating over a prolonged period of time when you are supposed to be braking.”

Mr Chander could be given a supervision order at a further hearing on 26 November.

Midland Red, which faces an unlimited fine, will be sentenced on the same date.

In a statement issued after the jury returned its verdict, Rowan’s family called for law changes to prevent similar accidents.

They said: “It is clear that both Kailash Chander and the management of Stagecoach Midlands are both fully responsible for the catastrophic events of 3 October 2015.

“The court findings today gives us no satisfaction. No sentence would ever stop the hurt that we feel for the loss of Rowan.

“However, we have real concerns that the deaths of Rowan and Dora will not be the last if laws are not reassessed and changed.”

The family said it was “completely ridiculous” that the long hours worked by Mr Chander were legal under the UK's employment legislation.

They added: “We don’t want the reasons why Rowan and Dora died to be forgotten, we want to see something positive come from this and at this time we feel this will only come from a change in law on bus drivers’ age and hours of work. This would prevent anyone having to go through what we have gone through over the last three years.”

Sergeant Alan Wood, of West Midlands Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “I know that the families of Rowan and Dora cannot comprehend how a 77-year-old man could legally work a 75-hour week driving public service vehicles.

“I have to agree with their observations; common sense would say this cannot be right and it would appear a legal review of GB Domestic Rules for bus drivers hours is wholly appropriate.”

A spokesman for Midland Red said: “None of us at our company will ever forget the terrible events of 3 October 2015. We are deeply sorry for the heartache of those affected, particularly the families of Rowan Fitzgerald and Dora Hancox.

“We have made it our continuing priority to work very closely with the authorities to help fully understand and learn detailed lessons from what has happened.”