A bus driver who killed a pensioner because he was distracted by a chocolate bar that he’d dropped has avoided a custodial sentence after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.

Garfield Balfour, 50, had been driving the Route 35 TfL bus on Walworth Road in South London when he ran over 88-year-old Arthur Gowrie.

Appearing yesterday (Thursday, October 6) at Inner London Crown Court, Balfour was handed an 18-month community sentence and suspended from driving for a year. He had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, and had remained working as a driver for TfL after successfully appealing his suspension.

READ MORE: Bloke lets his dog drive car during terrifying joyride through Jerusalem streets

The court heard that at 4:16pm on August 2, 2019, Balfour was driving an out-of-service bus down Walworth Road when they approached traffic. While travelling at very low speed, reports MyLondon, Balfour made the “conscious decision” to remove his hands from the steering wheel and lean forwards to retrieve the chocolate bar.

Prosecutor Wayne Cranston-Morris argued that at the same time, he “moved the vehicle forward” by pressing the accelerator pedal with his foot. Another CCTV clip showed Mr Gowrie standing at the kerbside with his walking stick and shopping trolley, before stepping into the road and walking in front of the bus, before he was knocked to the ground.

Branding it an “extremely unique case”, his defence lawyer Elizabeth Lambert said that the accident was an “unfortunate combination of events carried out at the same time that the defendant had no control over”. She argued that Mr Gowrie was in the driver’s blindspot and crossed the road in a way “that many drivers would not have anticipated”.

• 

  Cops release CCTV of mooning 'thief' and appeal for anyone who recognises his bum

Judge Peters said: “The camera tells us what happened in his case, he made the conscious decision to distract himself. I appreciate this all happened in the space of a moment and in hindsight would not have happened – people do get distracted in a car, they make a decision to play with the radio, the aircon, the satnav, you cannot use your mobile even while stationary now.

“All these distractions are there, this was a large bus of course, there were blind posts but this defendant made the conscious decision to be distracted and to lean over to get the chocolate bar and to open the chocolate bar,” he said. “I can't ignore that fact and that was the avoidable distraction.”

Balfour, of Stockwell, was handed an 18-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work and has been disqualified from driving for 12 months.

READ NEXT:

• Fury as strip club's annual golf tournament is double-booked with school practice
• Mum finds pencil after taking bite from Burger King meal as staff tell her 'don't worry'
• Adult star 'can't leave her home' after 'aggressive' locals keep shouting 'hey OnlyFans'
• Baseball bat-wielding bloke demands 'Stranger Things' couple take down Halloween display

Source: Read Full Article