Bus driver Van Chuyen Le, of Kent Road, Huntingdon, has been sentenced to 12 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay costs of £2,000, after he lost control of a bus, injuring five passengers.
Pleading guilty at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court to breaching Section 7(1) of the Health & Safety etc Act 1974, the court heard that he was employed by Cambus trading as Stagecoach East.
On 22 February 2016, he lost control of the bus as he negotiated a gap in the guideway. Mr Le was driving at 52mph when the maximum in that area was 30mph.
The bus jumped over the track, travelled across an adjacent path and came to rest up the side of a grassy embankment. The five passengers suffered a fractured spine, pelvis, ribs and whiplash.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Mr Le was reading a time duty card while driving and therefore had no vision of the busway ahead, nor did he have a grip of the steering wheel.
Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Nigel Fitzhugh said: “Drivers of guided buses must remain vigilant at all times.
“It is especially important to do so when driving on guided sections as the absence of steering control may create a sense that full control of the bus is being maintained.”
