UK bus driver denies running over S'porean student's death

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http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120614-0000020/UK-bus-driver-denies-causing-students-death

A double-decker bus driver hit Singaporean student Tan Mingwei, 20, and dragged her more than 800m under his vehicle, thinking he had only run over a bottle and a fox, a court in London heard.

Ms Tan, a Cambridge University medical student and the daughter of playwright and academic Tan Tarn How, had just returned from holiday when she was killed by the bus on Sept 30, 2010.

The driver, Shahriar Firouzian, 52, told the police he did not realise he had struck Ms Tan and even stopped to pick up a passenger while the student was trapped under the vehicle, a jury was told. He denies causing death by careless driving.

He recalled running over a bottle and a fox on the road, which corresponded to the points at which the pedestrian was hit by, and then eventually dislodged, from the bus, the prosecution alleged.

Ms Tan had planned to pick up more luggage from a family friend's house before catching a 6am flight to Rome. But as she crossed Pond Street outside Hampstead's Royal Free Hospital at just after 1.45am, she was hit by a bus with Firouzian at the wheel.

Prosecutor Hamish Reid said Firouzian "totally failed" to see the student as he turned into Pond Street.

Firouzian only discovered Ms Tan had been killed the next day. He told the police in a prepared statement: "It was a perfectly normal journey so far as I was aware."

The court heard on Monday that Tan's family, who live in Singapore, are unlikely to attend the trial. The case continues.