Dangerous driving: Fife schoolboys were run over in bus horror

A Fife bus driver has been found guilty of dangerous driving after running over two schoolboys in a horrific accident in a Dunfermline car park. 

One of the boys miraculously escaped serious injury after being knocked down and crawled from under the coach. 

However, the other youngster, then aged 13, suffered severe injuries and was trapped under a wheel as passers-by desperately tried to free him. 

As efforts began to free the boy, the driver John Morrison refused to leave his bus and did not phone the emergency services. He could not explain in his evidence why he had not seen the boys in front of his bus as he drove towards them.

Morrison (60), of Glenrothes, was found guilty today on the fourth day of a trial that began in April. 

On 28^th February last year in Allan Crescent, Dunfermline, Morrison caused serious injury to a 13-year-old boy by driving a vehicle dangerously, failed to maintain proper observations of the roadway around him and struck both boys, also causing injury to the younger boy.  

Sentence was deferred for reports until 13th November and an interim driving ban was imposed with immediate effect.

It was feared in the days after the accident that the boy may have to have his leg and arm amputated but both limbs were saved. 

Morrison admitted seeing a group of around ten youngsters in the car park in front of his bus. 

Despite this he drove towards them and said he “thought they would have the sense to get out of the way.” 

He thought they had all moved but heard screams and shouts. 

Asked why he had not got off the bus to see what had happened, Morrison said, “I was terrified” and that he had been threatened by people who gathered at the scene. 

The trial previously heard of chaotic scenes as the boy cried for help, on-lookers were screaming, while others videoed the incident for social media and the bus was vandalised. 

The boy who was seriously injured told the court he had undergone five operations since the accident. 

He was trapped under the wheel of the bus as members of the public made valiant but unsuccessful efforts to raise the vehicle. 

He was eventually freed after the arrival of the emergency services. 

The boy, now 14, sustained multiple fractures to his right leg and right arm. He had pins inserted in his leg, had three skin grafts and spent time in a wheelchair. He was in hospital for more than a month. 

He can now walk and is continuing his recovery but said, “I can’t run that well.” 

He said he was walking back home from high school with friends and passing through a car park. 

“I don’t remember seeing the bus,” said the youngster, adding that he had been looking at his friend’s phone. “I think I saw a flash and the bus hit me.” 

Sheriff Charles MacNair previously told the boy, “You have shown remarkable fortitude in the face of serious injury. Many people who come to this court would have made much more of these injuries. You should feel very proud.” 

Michael Dunster (21), a furniture deliveryman, witnessed the bus hitting the boys. “It was like slow motion. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It was like something out of a horror film.” 

He went on, “The bus driver asked me if the boy was dead. I said I didn’t know.” 

His work colleague Samuel Melville (29) said the bus driver made no attempt to slow down before the collision. 

He said he was “angry” with the driver after the accident. “The driver asked me how the boy was. I told him to get out and look for himself. He just shrugged.”