Bus driver cleared of wrongdoing after hitting elderly woman
The driver of a bus which hit a 87-year-old woman causing her head to hit the floor has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
Arriva driver Ross Hollis pulled away from his stop around 12.20pm on January 14 but hit the woman within seconds as he turned around the u-bend of the Rugeley Bus Station.
The 27-year-old, from Mountside Street, Hednesford, was charged with driving without due care and attention but was found not guilty by magistrates in Cannock.
He argued sun glaring in his eyes and a blind spot in the single-decker Dart bus he was operating, caused by the supporting beam running down the driver's side corner of the vehicle, had impaired his vision.
Mr Hollis said: "As I left the bus stand I couldn't see her, she was in my blind spot and as I went around the corner the glaze from the sun hit me.
"Then as soon as I saw her I put my brakes on. It was like a punch against her rather than running over her. Then she fell to the ground."
The driver told the court he immediately went to see if the stricken woman was okay while two other men, including an off-duty police officer, also came to her aid.
Remarkably she only suffered two cuts to her head.
Prosecutor Alex MacMillan, summarising his case, claimed Mr Hollis could have done more and fell below the standard of a reasonably competent and careful driver.
But Magistrates deliberated for around half an hour before finding him not guilty.
