Mother of two is left badly injured after being hit by ambulance vehicle

The woman was crossing the road with a buggy at the junction of Great Union Road and Devonshire Place on the afternoon of 30 June when she was hit by the bus, which was being driven by 51-year-old Jonathan James Webster.

She suffered a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder in what was described in the Magistrate’s Court as a ‘tragic accident’. Her children, aged eight months and two years, who were in the buggy, escaped serious injury.

Webster (51) pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving, and was banned from the road for a year and fined £2,500. Centenier Peter Garrett said that the collision took place when the minibus turned right from Devonshire Place into Great Union Road.

He said that after the collision, the woman was lying on the ground and two wheels of the double pushchair were under the front of the vehicle.

A car following the Ambulance Service vehicle said it did not signal to turn right and the Centenier said that the speed was estimated at between 5 mph and 10 mph.

Centenier Garrett said: ‘The woman said that she was pushing the buggy in front of her and had taken at least two steps onto the tarmac, which would put the buggy at about the central point in the road.’

The court heard that the defendant immediately got out of the minibus to help the woman and children.

As well as sustaining the arm and shoulder injuries, the woman suffered a puncture wound that was deeper than the index finger of the doctor who examined her. The court heard that this was caused by the sharp edges of the buggy.

The eldest child had scratches and bruising but no serious injuries and there was a deep cut to the right knee of the youngest child. A report in July said that the woman had recovered well from her injuries but still had pain in her left wrist and issues with the movement of that wrist.

Advocate David Cadin, defending, described the incident as a ‘tragic accident’.

The lawyer said: ‘My client can’t explain why he failed to see them. He has tormented himself. There was no other distraction, nothing else going on. He accepts that he should have seen them.

‘This is an accident for which Mr Webster is dreadfully sorry. He stopped immediately to tend to the victim and to help her children.

‘In fact, he went to the Hospital with the children and looked after them.’

Mr Cadin said that the last six months had been ‘absolutely horrendous’ for his client. He told the court that the loss of the defendant’s licence would mean the loss of his job.

In sentencing, Magistrate Bridget Shaw said: ‘This is a serious matter because serious injuries resulted. The degree of carelessness is low. This was a lapse of concentration or a misjudgment and there is no suggestion you were doing anything you shouldn’t have been doing in your cab.’

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