Bike crash bus driver spared driving ban

A motorcyclist suffered a broken leg after being knocked off his bike by a bus driver.

But Dundee man Michael Munro narrowly clung on to his licence and his job when he appeared at Perth Sheriff court last week.

Twenty-one-year-old Munro pled guilty to driving carelessly and knocking John Lee Willans off his Harley Davidson in Kinnoull Street last year.

Recounting the incident depute fiscal Lisa Marshall told the court Munro failed to see Mr Willans while attempting to steer the single decker bus he was driving right onto Mill Street on July 18.

The court heard Munro had been following another bus closely that day before he failed to spot Mr Willans and collided with his motorcycle sending him“under the bus”to the horror of onlookers.

Ms Marshall went on to explain shocked witnesses administered basic first aid to Mr Willans while they waited for an ambulance and paramedics to arrive.

She said he was then transported to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee where he was treated for fractures to his right leg as well as damage to his knee cap.

A solicitor defending Munro said he had only been driving for Stagecoach for a few months at the time of the incident but he accepted he had not been watching out closely enough for other vehicles while driving that day.

He explained if Munro was disqualified from driving he would naturally lose his job adding that Stagecoach had already put him on a final written warning following its own internal investigation into the incident which found against him.

Sentencing Munro sheriff Gillian Wade observed:“It must have been an extremely distressing incident for [Mr Willans] from which he took several months to recover.”

She fined Munro £800 and added nine penalty points to his licence.