Lib Dem-led council fined £6m over deadly 56mph busway

Telegraph

16-04-2025

A judge has fined a Lib Dem-led council £6 million over a 56mph busway.
Cambridgeshire county council was fined for health and safety breaches following three deaths and multiple incidents of injury.
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, which involves a modified bus guided along a track, is a 16-mile route which uses old rail lines to link Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives.
Judge Mark Bishop said the council had taken a 'rigid and blinkered approach to safety issues' in its management of the system.
He said the incidents spanned 11 years and noted that when the busway opened in 2011 the operating speed was to be 56mph – 'clearly too fast a speed for buses to move in an urban or semi-urban environment'.
On guided sections, buses follow the track and cannot steer.
Parts of the route have a busy pathway alongside, and originally there was no fence to separate it from cyclists and pedestrians.
Jennifer Taylor, 81, Kathleen Pitts, 52, and cyclist Steven Moir, 50, all died in incidents on the transport link.
At Cambridge Crown Court on Wednesday the sentencing judge said: 'I acknowledge the financial challenges that face the defendant.'
But he said the council had a turnover equivalent to more than £1 billion per year and had set aside more than £18 million in a fund to cover legal risks.
Ben Compton KC, for Cambridgeshire county council, requested it be given six years to pay the £6 million.
But the judge allowed three years and also ordered the authority to pay more than £292,000 in costs.
He paid tribute to the 'dignity' of family and friends of those killed or injured who attended court.
'Nothing that can be said in court can take away the loss that you've suffered but I want to express publicly our condolences to the bereaved and also to wish you well for the future,' he said.
'And let us hope that nothing like this will happen again.'
Mrs Taylor, who was fatally struck by a bus in 2015, had been trying to cross the carriageway.
Father-of-three Mr Moir died in 2018 after his bike clipped a kerb separating him from the busway and he fell into the path of a bus travelling at 55mph.
Ms Pitts died after she was struck on the head by a passing bus.
The judge said the defence submitted that 'on the balance of probabilities' her death was 'caused by her own volition'.
But he found that the risk Ms Pitts faced from the busway 'more than minimally contributed to her death'.
Reductions in speed limits
The council admitted at an earlier hearing to two charges under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The judge noted that since 2022 there had been reductions in speed limits and the installation of fencing.
Mr Moir's brother, Rob Moir, said outside court afterwards: 'There are no winners here. It's taxpayers' money at the end of the day.
'Hopefully it will be sufficient to make sure that not just this county council but other people, other councils, make sure they apply the due diligence that they should to health and safety.'
Graham Tompkins, a principal inspector for the Health and Safety Executive, said the death of Mrs Taylor 'should have been a wake-up call'.
'This is a significant moment for the families,' he said. 'I hope that finally this outcome gives them some closure.'
However, a few hours after the court hearing on Wednesday there was another accident on the busway.
A crash occurred between two guided buses and a fire engine on the B1050 Station Road in Northstowe, near Cambridge, around 2pm.
Eleven people were taken to hospital. The road was closed in both directions and buses were diverted.
A witness said the collision looked 'pretty horrendous'.
The Busway lanes/tracks have raised concrete sides, which can only be used by modified vehicles, although they have junctions with normal roads.
The council said it was working with the emergency services and the bus operator.