A bus driver has been arrested on suspicion of drug-driving after a collision near East Croydon Station on Saturday left a pedestrian fighting for his life in hospital.
George Street crossing: the scene at lunchtime on Saturday, as a man received emergency treatment
A man was struck by the bus at George Street, on the crossing outside Boxpark, at just before 1.10pm on Saturday. The man’s wife or partner and young son were with him at the time.
The incident involved a 119 bus heading for Bromley. The bus was busy with passengers. Someone on the bus said that they felt a jolt to the side of the vehicle as it passed the crossing on its way to the East Croydon bus station.
One passenger said that they had not noticed anything unusual or erratic about the way the bus had been driven until that point, nor about the driver. The driver was seen to be in some distress after the collision.
In a statement to Inside Croydon, the London Ambulance Service said: “We were called 1.07pm on October 5 to reports of a road traffic collision in George Street, Croydon.
“We sent a number of resources to the scene including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic and an incident response officer. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance.
“The first paramedic arrived in less than three minutes.
“We treated a patient at the scene and took him to a major trauma centre, by road, as a priority.”
Last night, it was reported that the bus driver was in custody. Police confirmed he had been detained on suspicion of drug-driving.
A spokesperson for TfL said that they are “working urgently with the operator Go Ahead and the police to investigate what happened”.
The 119 route sees buses travelling straight along George Street, from the direction of Wellesley Road to the bus stop outside the railway station. The tram tracks run along the other side of George Street on this busy main road.
The T-junction with Dingwall Road, alongside the pedestrian crossing where this incident occurred, has been the site of several road traffic incidents involving other motor vehicles as well as pedestrians.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
