Driver denied wrongdoing after hitting pedestrian as bus was overhanging pavement
An Arriva London bus driver who knocked down and killed a pedestrian on a pavement has been cleared of causing death by careless driving. Luigi Albertelli, 49, was behind the wheel of a route 141 double-decker bus when he hit father-of-four Ibrahim Tejan in Moorgate, central London in August 2010.
Mr Albertelli had been checking his mirrors after passing a stretch of roadworks, the Old Bailey heard. Nicola Merrick, prosecuting, said: “His bus was overhanging the pavement and he drove forward for a distance for several seconds with the bus overhanging the pavement.”
Albertelli said it was impossible to avoid the tip of the bus hanging over the pavement and he was pre-occupied checking the back end avoided hitting a traffic island. He told police: “I was doing what I should have been doing – looking at my offside mirror for a split second. I can’t manoeuvre in there without doing that.
“As I’m looking in my offside mirror to straighten my bus up, the next thing I hear is a loud bang and I look at my nearside – that’s when I see the gentleman sort of spinning and turning on to the floor. He added: “The gap was very tight, so I had to slow down and bring my bus into the gap – I had to put the front end of my bus on the pavement.”
Mr Albertelli denied causing death by careless driving and was cleared after a week-long trial. Mr Tejan, 50, was taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, after hitting his head on the pavement but died from his injuries 16 days later on September 2, 2010.
