Bus driver charged over death

Tuesday 2nd October 2007, 11:53AM BST.

Elizabeth Panton died in hospital A 42-year-old man has been charged with causing the death of a Market Drayton woman and seriously injuring her daughter and granddaughter in a bus accident in London.

Scotland Yard said Ishmail Ahmed, from Southall, west London, was charged with causing the death by dangerous driving of Elizabeth Panton, the mother-in-law of South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon.

He also faces two charges of grievous bodily harm relating to Mrs Panton’s daughter Sarah Hope, 35, and her two-year-old daughter, Pollyanna, who were both badly hurt in the crash.

The accident happened near a bus stop at the junction of North Worple Way and Avondale Road in Richmond, south-west London, at about 9.45am on April 25.

A witness described how the two women were trapped between the bus and the wall, while Pollyanna lay on the floor next to her crushed pushchair after the crash. The bus involved, a number 209 single-decker travelling from Mortlake to Hammersmith via Barnes, was left with a smashed windscreen.

Mrs Panton had travelled from her home in Market Drayton the day before to visit her new grandson Rollo, who had just been born to Mr Bacon’s wife Victoria.

She and Mrs Hope were taken to Charing Cross Hospital after the crash but the pensioner was later pronounced dead. Pollyanna was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Scotland Yard said Ahmed would appear at Richmond Magistrates Court on October 8.

View more: North Shropshire news.