Victim's brother welcomes 'new attitude' on busway

The brother of a cyclist who died after an accident on the world's longest guided busway has welcome the "new attitude" of a council operator prosecuted by a regulator.

Rob Moir, brother of Steve Moir, was speaking after Cambridgeshire County Council admitted breaching health and safety legislation at a hearing in Cambridge Crown Court.

The council had been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after Mr Moir and two other people died in accidents on the Cambridgeshire guided busway.

Bosses are waiting for a judge to make a sentencing decision.

Judge Mark Bishop was told how three people died between 2015 and 2021 after collisions on the busway, which serves Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives.

Jennifer Taylor, 81, was hit by a bus when she crossed the busway on foot at Fen Drayton in November 2015.

Mr Moir, 50, fell into the path of an oncoming bus after clipping a kerb separating him from the busway in Cambridge in September 2018.

Pedestrian Kathleen Pitts, 52, was hit by a bus on the same stretch in October 2021.

The judge heard evidence at a sentencing hearing which ended on Friday and is expected to fine the council at a further hearing in the near future.

Council chief executive Stephen Moir has apologised.

He has said the council "fell far short" of meeting health and safety at work standards and was "truly sorry".

After last week's hearing, Rob Moir told journalists: "We welcome Cambridgeshire County Council's new attitude in the hope that from now on all reasonable safety measures will be implemented."

A barrister leading the council's legal team told Judge Bishop that vulnerable people would be hit by any fine.

Ben Compton KC asked the judge to keep any fine to a minimum.

"This council is not saying its finances are so dire that it can't pay a fine," he said.

"But any fine will hit those, particularly those those most vulnerable in our community."

He said the guided busway was a "novel" transport system.

"There seems to have been a dogged determination in treating the guided busway as a road," he said.

"The emphasis seems to have been on the timetable and efficiency of the guided busway rather than the council's health and safety duties"

He told the judge that "new management" and "new systems" were in place.

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