Stagecoach branch must reduce fleet following inquiry into bus crash

Midland Red South, the Warwickshire subsidiary of Stagecoach, will be forced to restrict the number of buses it can operate throughout April.

The news is the result of a public inquiry into the firm after it was convicted of health and safety offences following the crash of an X18 bus in Coventry in October 2015.

Rowan Fitzgerald, a seven year old schoolboy from Leamington, and Dora Hancox, 76, a Nuneaton resident, were killed when driver Khailash Chander crashed into a Sainsbury’s store.

The initial trial found that he had mistook the accelerator for the brake, and that he had been “driving dangerously”.

Midland Red admitted allowing Chander to work up to 70 hours per week, and that they were aware of his “erratic driving”, receiving a £2.3million fine for health and safety breaches.

Managers were then called to a public inquiry at the end of January, where West Midlands Transport Commissioner Nicholas Denton made the decision to limit the number of vehicles the firm can operate to just 200, down from 261, from the 1 to the 29 of April.

Commissioner Denton said in the inquiry, “It is clear to me from the evidence that the tragic incident was not the result of a one-off error by one person within the company, but of a series of errors, committed over time by several people at various levels within the company.”

“As the judge concluded, the culpability of the company is very high. It would not be appropriate for me to make any different finding, nor would I wish to do so,” he added.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach said: “Safety is our priority and following the accident we have taken extensive steps to strengthen our safety processes to help ensure this kind of accident does not happen again.”