Busway death 'a preventable accident', court told

The son of a 52-year-old woman who was killed on the world's longest guided busway has told a court it was "such a preventable accident".

Three people died in separate incidents along the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway over a six-year period and a boy sustained life-changing injuries, Cambridge Crown Court was told.

Liam Pitts was 22 when his mother Kathleen Pitts was fatally stuck by a bus in October 2021.

Cambridgeshire County Council, which runs the transport link, has admitted two health and safety offences and details were set out at a two-day sentencing hearing.

In a statement read to the court, Mr Pitts said: "I believe my mother would still be here if it wasn't for the inherent risk built into the guided busway in Cambridge."

He said she was a "great mother" and a devout Christian, who attended church and volunteered with Oxfam.

The busway, which involves a modified bus being guided along a track, is a 16-mile (26km) route that uses old rail lines to link Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives.

Pascal Bates, prosecuting, said Ms Pitts was moving along a pathway on the guided busway near to Clare College sports ground at the time.

He said she suffered "unsurvivable head injuries and significant chest injuries".

Mr Bates said the incident happened at a location "identical to within a few metres" to the site where cyclist Steven Moir, 50, was killed three years earlier.

Father-of-three Mr Moir died after his bike clipped a kerb separating him from the busway and he fell into the path of a bus in September 2018.

Mr Bates said the speed limit for buses at the time of Mr Moir's death had been 56mph (90km/h), and by the time of Ms Pitts's death this had been reduced to 30mph (48km/h).

He said the death of Ms Pitts "shows the ongoing risk despite the speed reduction".

"Buses were passing very close to the pathway without warning and at considerable speed," said Mr Bates.

He said a possible way of meeting safety standards on that stretch of the busway could be to put in a fence.

The first day of the two-day sentencing hearing, on Thursday, had been told that 81-year-old pedestrian Jennifer Taylor was killed in 2015.

Ms Taylor had got off a bus on the busway to return to an earlier stop she had missed when she was then struck by another bus while still crossing the lane, the court heard.

The county council has admitted two charges under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, relating to the public trying to cross the busway at designated crossings and being struck while moving alongside the busway.

Ben Compton KC, for the council, said the authority wished to express its "profound apology and contrition for the serious and systemic failings".

He continued: "It's relevant that this was a novel transport system.

"There were no national design standards, only recommended practices."

Mr Compton said construction of the busway was completed in 2009 and it opened in 2011.

"We say there were serious flaws early on and they weren't rectified," said Mr Compton.

He said there "seems to have been a dogged determination in treating the guided busway as a road".

"The emphasis seems to have been on the timetable and efficiency of the guided busway rather than... health and safety," he added.

Judge Mark Bishop adjourned the case to pass sentence at a later date.

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