Ellie Ames 03 September 2024

Cambridgeshire to plead guilty after busway deaths

Cambridgeshire to plead guilty after busway deaths image
Image: Stephen Richard McAdam / Shutterstock.com

Cambridgeshire County Council will plead guilty to two health and safety offences after three people died in collisions on its guided busway.

The Health and Safety Executive is prosecuting the council in relation to the deaths of Jennifer Taylor, Steven Moir and Kathleen Pitts on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway between 2015 and 2021.

The charges also relate to incidents where people accessing the busway were injured.

Cambridgeshire chief executive Stephen Moir acknowledged there had been ‘serious historic failings’ and said the council was ‘truly sorry’.

On the busway, buses are guided along a track and steering is automatically controlled.

The project has been beset by difficulties since its completion two years late in 2011 at a cost of £152m.

In 2020, Cambridgeshire launched a legal claim against contractor BAM Nutall for the cost of repairs to alleged defects. A confidential settlement was agreed last year.

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