Driver, 90, killed couple after ‘pressing wrong pedal’
Motorist dropping off wife at doctor’s panicked and kept his foot down as his car span out of control
A 90-YEAR-OLD driver ran down and killed a couple outside a hospital after pressing the accelerator instead of the brake, a court heard.
Philip Bull, a retired textile merchant, was dropping off his 87-year-old wife for a doctor’s appointment when he accelerated by accident while reversing his Ford Focus into a parking space.
His car span out of control and ran over Clare Haslam, 44, and Deborah Clifton, 49, outside Withington Community Hospital in Manchester, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Miss Clifton was crushed under the wheels of the vehicle before members of the public lifted it off her. She died later at another hospital. Her partner suffered multiple injuries in the impact and died shortly afterwards. Bull, who is a carer for his wife of 65 years, was said by onlookers to be in a “confused state” in the moments after the impact.
The grandfather, from Wythenshawe, Manchester, later said he thought he was pressing his foot down on the brake and not the accelerator and, in his subsequent panic, carried on inadvertently pressing down.
He said: “I cannot think of any worse way to come to the end of my life, having ended the lives of others.” Bull, who pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, was warned he could face up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors accepted he had not been engaged in “deliberate bad driving”. The court heard the pensioner, who was described as a “decent, honourable and hard-working man”, had no medical grounds to stop driving.
The incident happened around 2pm on March 7 when he arrived at the hospital. Sarah Johnston, prosecuting, said: “He began to turn the steering wheel but then suddenly accelerated.
“The vehicle by now was at full lock and the speed of the car was increased. The rear of the car knocked down a metal barrier and then Clare Haslam, hitting the wall and knocking her to the ground. The defendant was still driving the car and the car then span with the accelerator still being applied and the car continued to travel backwards.
“The accelerator was pressed firmly down at this point and the rear of the car collided with Deborah Clifton as she was trying to get out of the way.”
Richard Vardon, mitigating, said Bull was “hugely remorseful” and added: “The incident had nothing to do with the age of the defendant. What Mr Bull has done has pressed the wrong pedal and panicked.” Judge Martin Walsh adjourned sentencing until today.