Bus driver suffered a cardiac arrest at wheel
8:55am Friday 15th March 2013 in Local
A BUS driver suffered a cardiac arrest at the wheel and lost control of his bus causing it to crash into a tree and a fence, an inquest has heard.
Amir Hamza, aged 58, was driving the number 500 Maytree bus, a free bus around Bolton town centre, when he became ill at about 1.30pm, on September 18 last year.
An inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard that as Mr Hamza drove along Crook Street, towards the junction with Thynne Street, he began to drive very slowly and slumped across the wheel.
The bus then drove across the junction, mounted the pavement and crashed on the other side of the road.
Passenger David Seddon told the court that he tried to help Mr Hamza, who appeared to be unconscious, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the Royal Bolton Hospital.
Nobody was injured in the crash and Mr Hamza was believed to have only been travelling at about five miles per hour.
Mr Hamza’s wife Suraiya Begum, a teaching assistant at Mount St Joseph in Farnworth, told the court that Mr Hamza was a hard-working man who was devoted to his family.
The couple, from Lydbrook Close, Bolton, had three children Hafiza, Shereen and Rehan, and Mr Hamza had two daughters from a previous marriage.
Mr Hamza, who moved to England from Pakistan aged 11, had been a boxer until he was injured in a motorcycle accident.
He volunteered for an Asian radio station in Manchester and did lots of work for the community.
Deputy coroner Alan Walsh recorded that Mr Hamza died from natural causes and said it was “sudden and unexpected” and nothing could have been done to prevent his death.
He paid tribute to Mr Hamza, a “committed family man” and an “exemplary driver”, and said his family should be “very proud” of him.
“I want him to be remembered as a competent, capable and hard-working man. A man who worked exceptionally hard throughout his life to provide for his family,” he added.
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Comments (6)
9:30am Fri 15 Mar 13
oftbewildered2 says...
4:40pm Fri 15 Mar 13
wsw69 says...
9:24pm Fri 15 Mar 13
alecfranco says...
10:02am Sat 16 Mar 13
BWFC71 says...
11:32am Sat 16 Mar 13
Citizen Cane says...
1:21pm Sat 16 Mar 13
BWFC71 says...
2. As you have mentioned it, you are not totally correct as the service is subsidised 80% by private companies within the town centre whilst the other 20% comes from Bolton Council and TfGM - but it must be well used, otherwise the TfGM subsidy would have been withdrawn at the end of the last contract (which finished 31/12/2012)!!!