A BUS driver who ran over a pensioner said he had been left “heartbroken” by the accident – but that he could not have done anything differently.

Married father-of-two David Diggle should not have been driving the bus which ran over George Ainsworth, a court heard, but had swapped with a colleague at the last minute.

Mr Ainsworth, aged 84, was struck by the First 501 bus – which was travelling at less than 10mph – at the junction of Knowsley Street and Deansgate on November 29. He suffered multiple injuries and died in hospital two weeks later.

Bolton Crown Court heard how 66-year-old Diggle, a bus driver for 41 years, had never committed a crime and had accrued three points in 49 years of holding a car licence.

Diggle, of Radcliffe Road, Bolton, cried in the dock as he recounted seeing Mr Ainsworth under the wheels of his bus – a sight he said he had seen “every night and every morning since”.

He added: “It has been 16 months of sheer hell.

“I am sorry Mr Ainsworth died, but I stand here and I can honestly say I drove that bus to the best of my ability and I did not think I had made any mistakes.”

Diggle said that as he approached the tight bend he was continually looking in his nearside mirror to make sure the bus did not mount the pavement.

But Andrew Brown, prosecuting, said: “You did not see him because you were concentrating on other aspects of driving your bus, rather than what was in the road where your bus was about to go.”

Much of the argument in court on Tuesday centred on Diggle’s view and to what extent the buses’ ‘A pillar’, doorframe and assault screen had created a blind spot.

Expert witness Philip Collier, called by the defence, said: “If Mr Ainsworth had stopped or gone faster or slower he would have moved out of the blind spot or been ahead of it.

“It is quite bizarre and purely by chance that the two spots perfectly aligned to create the collision.”

But PC David Poole, an accident reconstruction expert who appeared as a witness, said while there had been an obstructed view he did not agree Mr Ainsworth would have been permanently hidden – because Diggle should have been looking around.

He said: “Mr Ainsworth was there to be seen.”

Gareth Roberts, defending, said Mr Ainsworth had been “foolhardy”.

He added: “Mr Ainsworth tragically was crossing in a place where it was perilous to do so, and exacerbated that by failing to look properly.”

Diggle denies causing death by careless driving. The case continues.