Doctor run over and killed outside hospital in Ealing, court told

BBC News

23-04-2025

A doctor was killed in the car park of the hospital where she worked by a delivery driver who did not check his blind spot properly, the Old Bailey has heard.Dr Anjum Afshan, 62, was walking to catch a bus after work when she was run over by Gulamo Remtula, who reversed his van from an entrance outside Clayponds Rehabilitation Hospital in Ealing, west London, the court was told.One of Dr Afshan's colleagues witnessed the incident, which happened at about 15:50 GMT on 12 January 2023, and rushed into the hospital to get help. An hour later Dr Afshan was declared dead.Mr Remtula, 58, of Harrow, west London, denies causing death by careless driving.
'Inattentive'
Dr Afshan was hit from behind and thrown forward by the impact but the van continued reversing and she became pinned by the rear axle, the court heard.Her grieving relatives left the court as CCTV footage of the incident was played to the jury.Prosecutor Frederick Hookway said Mr Remtula was driving a Mercedes Sprinter van with a box trailer and that the vehicle did not have an audible reversing alarm.Mr Hookway told the jury: "In this case, the prosecution invite you to conclude the driving was careless because the defendant reversed through a car park without making adequate checks of his blind spot, and so was inattentive before moving off."He knew pedestrians shared this space with his vehicle and so it was incumbent upon him to make sure that no-one was behind his van before he began to reverse."Mr Hookway added: "The central issue, and the main thing for you to resolve when you consider your verdict, is your assessment of the defendant's standard of driving and how that contributed to this incident."A post-mortem examination gave Dr Afshan's cause of death as a crush injury to the chest and traumatic asphyxia.