Bus smash passenger killed after driver jumped red light, court hears (From Croydon Guardian)

Bus smash passenger killed after driver jumped red light, court hears

A man died in a horror smash in central Croydon after a bus driver jumped a red light, a court heard yesterday.

The aftermath of the crash

Andrzej Karcz, 28, was thrown through an upper deck window of the 468 bus after it collided with a tram in George Street in September 2008, Croydon Crown Court heard.

Driver Rouaf Mraidi is charged with causing death by dangerous driving following the crash.

Prosecutor Mark Paltenghai told the court Mr Karcz was fatally injured as he fell between the tram and the runaway bus, which careered down a side street and mounted the pavement before ramming a parked car into a shop window.

He said: “It was fortunate indeed these events occured relatively early on a Sunday morning.

“On any other day of the week the pavement to which I have just referred in George Street would have been crowded with pedestrians.”

He added: “By a miracle no one person in the street was injured.”

Mr Paltenghai said witnesses had seen Mr Mraidi involved in a radio call “shortly before and during the collision”, and told the court CCTV cameras at the intersection had captured the defendant driving through the red light.

He said: “This was a route he knew well as he had travelled along it on many occasions during the preceding two years.

“On Sunday, September 8 he signed in for work at the Camberwell depot at 9.07am.

“He had not been on the road for many, many hours.

“He started 468 route at 9.53am. Five minutes later Mr Karcz had been killed.”

Mr Mraidi has pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, which carried a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment.

The trial continues.