Pedestrian dies after second bus crash at Victoria station
A PEDESTRIAN has been killed after being struck by a bus at London Victoria railway station, the second fatal collision at the site in less than three years.
Emergency services including police, fire and ambulance crews, were called to reports of a fatal collision at about 9am yesterday.
Scotland Yard confirmed the pedestrian was declared dead just before 9.30am and that officers were working to inform next of kin.
According to reports, the collision took place after a Number 13 double decker bus crashed into a shelter at the bus station.
Ewelina Rusin, 39, a manager at a nearby Pret a Manger, said she heard glass smashing and recalled hearing firemen say that the bus had crashed into a stop.
She said: “I heard broken glass and thought it was bin men collecting glass from the pub across the road. Police, fire and ambulance crews all came straight away.
“They were here within minutes. There were about 10 cars. The fire guys came in and said someone had died after the bus crashed into one of the glass bus stops. But at the time I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was all the bottles from the pub across the road.”
The driver was taken to hospital and the bus station was closed for several hours, with about a dozen officers stationed at the scene.
The fatality follows the death of Melissa Burr at the station in August 2021. The 32-year-old died from multiple injuries when bus driver Olusofa Popoola, 61, pressed the accelerator rather than the brake, shunting forward into a stationary bus that then hit her.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “At 8.59am police were made aware of a serious road traffic collision between a pedestrian and a bus at the London Transport bus station outside Victoria Station.
“Multiple Metropolitan Police units were in attendance along with officers from British Transport Police and the London Ambulance Service.
“Despite the best efforts of the London Ambulance Service, the [pedestrian] was pronounced dead at 9.26am.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said an investigation had been launched into what he called an “awful tragedy”.