OAP collision: Trial of driver is postponed

Accused of failing to see pensioner

The trial of a bus driver accused of running over a 78year-old pensioner on a zebra crossing was postponed yesterday (Tuesday) to allow his defence team to take legal action to force civil servants to reveal the findings of an official probe into the“serious”incident.

First Bus driver Craig Young, 49, is said to have “failed to keep a proper lookout” and failed to observe the elderly pedestrian, Elizabeth Syme, then crossing Station Road in Stirling by the zebra crossing, before colliding with her.

It is said that the collision, on October 28, 2017, caused her to fall to the ground, whereupon Young “drove over her” causing her to be trapped under the bus to her injury.

Young, of Bellevue Park, Alloa, Clackmannanshire, denies causing injury by dangerous driving.

At a procedural hearing at Stirling Sheriff Court, defence lawyer Virgil Crawford appeared as local agent for Young’s Dunfermline-based principal solicitors, Martin, Johnston and Socha.

Mr Crawford said investigations had been carried out after the accident by the Driver and Vehicles Standards Agency -which looked into whether a driving-cab security screen may have interfered with the driver’s view - and by an expert from First Bus’s insurers.

Mr Crawford said: “There are therefore two expert reports into the incident in existence, which the principals have been attempting to recover, but without success.”

Mr Crawford asked for a postponement of the trial, which had been due to take place later this month, to allow Young’s lawyers to launch proceedings for the recovery of documents which would force the DVSA and First Bus to hand them over.

He said: “Mr Young is a person with no previous convictions whatsoever, charged with an offence of a very serious nature.”

Sheriff Simon Collins set a new trial date of March 21, after a further procedural hearing on February 5, from which Young’s attendance was excused.