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Death-crash bus driver is jailed for seven years
A bus driver whose dangerous driving killed an 82-year-old passenger and injured 40 others was jailed for seven years yesterday.
Saeed Abbas, 26, admitted being in a state of extreme fatigue when his double-decker bus swerved off the road and crashed near Huddersfield in September 2006.
Just two hours earlier he had veered off a main road and on to a grass verge while driving a different route, narrowly missing a bridge.
In the second incident, passenger Albert Rowley, described as a "healthy and active" pensioner, was thrown from his seat at the front of the top deck, fracturing his legs.
The retired stonemason, from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, died from complications arising from his injuries three weeks later, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Judge Christopher Prince told Abbas it was very surprising more people were not seriously hurt.
"You knew that you were too tired to be driving, but you made a decision to continue when you were not even near the end of your shift," he said.
"You showed a complete disregard for the safety of your passengers. Many of them have physical and psychological injuries that certainly fall into the category of actual bodily harm."
Abbas, of Little Horton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving and two counts of reckless driving at an earlier hearing.
Abbas was driving from Bradford to Huddersfield when his bus swerved off the A641 Bradford Road, across a pavement, into a lamp post and through a wall, ending up in a front garden.
During the shift, Abbas was captured on closed circuit TV reading bus timetables, driving with one hand and repeatedly yawning. He had not checked the tickets of passengers, stopped in the wrong place and forgot to change the destination sign on the front of the bus.
Judge Prince told Abbas these were all aggravating factors in the case.
He said: "There can be no greater warning that you were not fit to drive than nearly hitting the parapet of a bridge.
"You do not even seem to have made an effort to concentrate after that."
Abbas claimed he had gone to bed at 10pm the night before the accident, getting up for his Monday morning shift at 5am.
But prosecutor Andrew Dallas said Abbas was aware of being tired for at least two hours of his shift.
Abbas passed his driving test two years before the accident, but he was yesterday ordered to surrender his licence and was disqualified from driving for five years.
At the time of the accident, Abbas was awaiting a disciplinary hearing with his employers, First Group, for another crash. He had been involved in four minor collisions during his 15 months of service with the company.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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