Saskia Bets: Bus driver, 25, jailed for killing Yorkshire school worker in head-on crash on the A19 while his windscreen was 'mucky'

Jonathan Eaves, 25, was driving an empty Volvo single-decker belonging to his employer, Reliance Motor Services, along the A19 on the morning of January 26, 2021, when he ‘violently’ swerved into the opposite lane of the single carriageway.

He smashed into the Audi A1 driven by Saskia Bets, who had left her home in Easingwold that morning to drive to her job as a behaviour mentor at a special school in York.

The 27-year-old was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary but her life support was switched off when it became clear she had suffered an unsurvivable brain injury.

York Crown Court today heard that Eaves, who admitted causing Saskia’s death by dangerous driving, had been travelling within the 50mph speed limit, but claimed not to have seen a cyclist ahead of him until the last moment because the man was not visible enough and due to his windscreen being obscured by ‘muck’ and ice.

Yet a police reconstruction established that he would have had at least 13 seconds to react to the cyclist, Josh Barter, who was wearing fluorescent clothing and had a working rear light. Mr Barter’s handlebar was clipped by the bus as it overtook him going ‘flat out’ before colliding head-on with the oncoming Audi.

The Crown also submitted video evidence that Eaves had driven buses while distracted several weeks before the collision, when he was caught on camera taking his hands off the steering wheel to adjust his smartwatch and headset, open cans and bottles of drink and tubs of sweets, and have phone conversations. He was filmed using his elbow to steer and having a long phone call while turning a corner without indicating.

A driver who worked with him, Nathan Bentham, said Eaves had had ‘seven or eight’ minor crashes in 2020, and after one of these incidents said he had been distracted by music he had been playing. He was commuting from Halifax to the Reliance depot in York at the time and told Mr Bentham that he slept poorly and drank Red Bull to stay alert.

After the collision, which left the Audi in a ditch, Mr Barter approached Eaves, who remained inside the bus, and said he was holding his mobile phone with ice visible on the windscreen. Eaves told police at the scene that he had not seen the cyclist and had swerved to avoid him.

A police investigation found that there was no evidence Eaves had braked and that he had driven close to Mr Barter without seeing him. There was sufficient width for him to pass the cyclist and the road was straight, with a clear view ahead of him. Eaves claimed the windscreen had been ‘muddied’ by three HGVs which passed him, but CCTV showed only one lorry.

In later police interviews he repeated claims that spray from wagons had smeared the glass and that the screenwash was frozen, and also said the cyclist’s clothing was obscured by his rucsac. It was later found that he had ticked a vehicle inspection document before setting off confirming the wipers and wash worked, but CCTV from the bus depot showed they had not been tested that morning.

The court heard victim impact statements from Saskia’s father Johan and sister Marieke. Marieke Bets said: “You will get to experience all the things she never will – getting engaged, married, having children. All those things were taken from Saskia. You will get to live a life.

"When we switched off her life support, it wasn’t like it is in the movies. She took 45 minutes to die, and she was convulsing in the last seconds, fighting for her life after 12 hours of people trying to save her.

"We haven’t been able to share our story because of the police investigation, and it felt like we’ve been protecting you. She was not responsible for this. It was you. You took her.”

Their father added that Saskia had hoped to study for a doctorate in clinical psychology but that her future plans would ‘never materialise’. She had been renovating a house with her partner.

Mr Bets criticised Eaves for continuing to work as a bus driver for other employers even after he was dismissed by Reliance and added: “How could you even consider driving a bus again? We have been given a life sentence for a crime none of us committed.”

Eaves’ defence counsel said his client ‘fully accepted’ his driving was dangerous but called it a ‘series of serious errors of judgement’. He said it was agreed that Eaves should have pulled over into a layby to clear his windscreen and reduced his speed when his vision became reduced.

He added that Eaves has done voluntary work with disadvantaged adults since the collision, had worked as a skiing instructor and that the bus companies that employed him knew of the upcoming court case. He accepted that it was unlikely Eaves would ever drive a bus or HGV again.

Judge Simon Hickey, who agreed that Saskia was ‘absolutely blameless’ in the circumstances, jailed Eaves for four years and eight months and banned him from driving for six years and four months.