Bus death crash verdict

News Reporter A BUS driver killed a greatgrandmother and a seven-yearold boy by driving dangerously through Coventry city centre, a jury has ruled.

Kailash Chander was found to have done the acts alleged against him - two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving - following a ‘finding of facts trial’ at Birmingham Crown Court.

The charges came after a double decker bus driven by then 77-year-old Chander veered on to a grass verge in Hales Street and then smashed in to the nearby Sainsbury’s supermarket in Trinity Street on October 3, 2015.

The incident left two people dead; 76-year-old Dora Hancox from Nuneaton and seven-yearold Leamington schoolboy Rowan Fitzgerald.

The crash also left two people - Rowan’s cousin Paige Wilson and a student named Aleksei Rodin - seriously injured.

Chander, who has been diagnosed with dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, was deemed unfit to stand trial on medical grounds and the jury instead had to decide if he had carried out the acts alleged against him - which they did.

During five days of evidence the jury heard that Chander - a former mayor of Leamington - put his foot on the accelerator instead of the brake during the incident, had worked excessive hours in the weeks and months leading up to the fatal crash, and had been involved in four other crashes while at the wheel of a bus in the three previous years.

Chander’s employers Stagecoach - also known as Midland Red - have previously pleaded guilty to two offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act in connection with the crash. Both Chander and Midland Red will appear at a further hearing on November 26.