Killed by a bus driver's error

9:18am Thursday 11th October 2001

The driver of a bus which killed an elderly Norbury man has been convicted of driving without due care and attention.

The relatives of 74-year-old Piero Tibaldi have lodged a civil action against Arriva following the conviction at Croydon Magistrates Court last Thursday (October 4).

Driver Colin Elie, 56, who lives in Kynaston Avenue, Thornton Heath, previously had an unblemished driving record, and was fined £200, ordered to pay £300 in costs and had his driving licence endorsed with three points.

Mr Tibaldi's daughter, Antonella Fuschillo, said after the trial: “We are pleased that there has been a conviction. We could never accept that my father just walked out carelessly into the road.

“The sentencing does not matter to us Mr Elie did genuinely look upset about the whole thing. But if he is saying that there is a blind spot that all buses have then this is something that the bus companies have to look in to. We have started civil proceedings against Arriva.”

But Norman Brennan, national director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: “Unfortunately, this is the type of sentence that people can get these days for this sort of crime.

“The courts don't place a great deal of emphasis on the life of those knocked over and killed.”

The court heard how Colin Elie's vehicle, the 367 bus, had driven slowly round the corner of Keeley Road into a one-way street, Drummond Road just as Mr Tibaldi was crossing on October 12 last year.

Mr Tibaldi's wife, who was on her way to meet her husband, arrived on the scene to see her husband lying in the road.

Mr Tibaldi, from Lyndhurst Avenue, sustained serious head injuries and eventually died on November 1 at Mayday Hospital.Elie's defence maintained the driver had made all the necessary checks before turning his vehicle into Drummond Road.

The defendant, who pleaded not guilty, claimed a “blind spot” in his cabin between the support beam of the windscreen and the top of his cabin console was to blame for not seeing Mr Tibaldi.

But the prosecution argued that this was not possible due to Mr Tibaldi's height and the fact that he was hit in the centre of the road.

Under cross examination, crown prosecution barrister Hamish Reid told Elie: “You cannot bring yourself to accept that you made a mistake.”

Presiding magistrate Mr Diplock said: “We accept that the bus did not come flying round the corner and was going at a speed between five and 10 miles an hour and accept that he made checks in his mirror.”

But JPs did not believe that the defendant made sufficient checks looking into Drummond Road as he drove into it.

Mr Diplock added: “(Mr Tibaldi) would have been visible in the centre of the road and would have been seen by a driver in Mr Elie's position.”

A spokesman from Arriva said it accepted the court's decision and that Mr Elie would continue employment.