Driver’s regret at death crash

Yesterday, the man whose car hit the 75-year-old said he was sorry to her grieving husband, John, after he completed an 18-week sentence for four motoring offences.

Dunstable Coroners Court heard the elderly couple, of Grove Road, Dunstable, were tossed into the air and onto the bonnet of Adnan Butt’s Vauxhall Vectra as they crossed Cardigan Street, Luton, in October last year.

Seconds earlier Butt had overtaken a car at speed in Dunstable Road before cutting in front of a bus and turning into Cardigan Street on the wrong side of the road.

After the accident he got out of his car and told the injured couple that the bus had been to blame. He later denied to police that he was the driver and said that he had been another pedestrian.

In court coroner David Morris asked the driver: “Do you now recognise that was not true?”

“Yes,” said Butt. “I’m very sorry.”

The inquest heard that Mrs Kirby was taken to the Luton & Dunstable Hospital before being transferred to St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London, where she underwent an operation to repair her pelvis. She died nine days later following a heart attack. She had an undiagnosed heart condition.

Witness Norman Barnes had been a fellow bus passenger and had got off at the same stop as the Kirbys, following them along the street.

He said: “The Vauxhall went straight into the elderly lady. She went into the air and onto the bonnet. Both the man and woman were lying in the road.”

He said the driver, Butt, got out of his vehicle and shouted at the couple to get up.

The court heard that Butt got back into his car and drove to his home in nearby Inkerman Street. He was later arrested and faced charges of driving without due care and attention, failing to stop and failing to report an accident, and driving other than in accordance with his driving licence.

In recording a narrative verdict Mr Morris said Mrs Kirby died from a natural event exacerbated by traumatic injuries sustained when struck by a motor vehicle.