Bus driver who ran over passenger is spared jail despite guilty verdict over death

A former bus driver has been found guilty of killing a passenger who was run over as he tried to board.

Steven Mitchell, 60, was injured when his right arm was run over by the wheel of Aston Hopwood’s 363 bus in Peckham Hill Street, outside Peckham Library, on the evening of November 26, 2022.

Jurors heard how Mr Mitchell waited two hours for an ambulance to arrive while he was bleeding, and died in hospital just under a month later.

Hopwood, 47, from Southwark, said he knew nothing about the incident until police informed his employers. In a police interview, he accepted that he failed to check whether any other passengers were trying to board the bus before pulling away.

He denied causing death by careless driving but was found guilty yesterday following a retrial at the Old Bailey.

Judge Anthony Leonard KC sentenced him to 12 months in custody, suspended for two years. He also ordered him to do 140 hours’ unpaid work and disqualified him from driving for two years.

Judge Leonard told Hopwood: “I take into account the stress of waiting during the course of two trials for the outcome and you were clearly very upset by the death of Mr Mitchell.”

The judge also expressed his “extreme astonishment” that bus company Go-Ahead London had allowed him to appeal against his dismissal after the incident.

He said: “Anyone who watched the CCTV footage could not in reality have decided he was an appropriate person to drive a bus with passengers.”

Previously, prosecutor Adam King told how a witness had called 999 to report Mr Mitchell was bleeding from his right arm. He then accompanied the victim to a nearby hostel, where Mr Mitchell made a further 999 call.

Mr King said: “He told the operator that he had been run over by a bus and was bleeding profusely from the arm, which had been broken.

“He said his condition had worsened, and that he was now bleeding more, with blood pouring out. He said he was in awful pain, his breathing was not normal.

“He was given advice about stemming the bleeding. As a result of following those instructions, Mr Mitchell said the bleeding was ‘sort of’ under control.”

Emergency services first arrived at Mr Mitchell’s hostel at 12.35am where he was found sitting in a chair in the reception area with “a lot of blood” around him.

After being taken to hospital, Mr Mitchell told a police officer that he had run for a bus in Peckham Hill Street and got his arm trapped in the door.

He said the bus had moved off, and that he had then fallen, resulting in his arm going underneath the bus’s wheels, jurors heard.

He had several operations and was admitted to the intensive care unit with multiple failing organs, and he was taken off life support on December 18, 2022.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as multiple organ failure and sepsis.

A pathologist found it was caused by pneumonia and chronic liver disease in an individual who was “chronically alcohol dependent” and who had “suffered blunt force trauma”.

The prosecutor said that without the blunt force trauma from being run over by the bus, Mr Mitchell would not have died.

Jurors were shown clips of CCTV footage which captured the incident.

Mr King said: “Mr Mitchell approaches the bus after them and, while the bus doors are still open, steps with his right foot into the bus and places his right hand in the door area.

“The bus then begins to move away, causing him to stumble and run along with the bus, his right hand still in the door area.

“Mr Mitchell then falls to the floor, close to the bus, which travels on past him and apparently over his right arm.”

In a police interview on January 30, 2023, Hopwood accepted he was the driver and said he had not been aware of Mr Mitchell trying to board the bus.

The defendant accepted that he had not checked his nearside mirrors to see whether any other passengers were trying to board the bus before pulling away, the court was told.

Pictured top: Peckham Library in Peckham Hill Street, where the tragic indent occurred (Picture: Google Street View)