Video: Bristol bus driver ‘used vehicle like a weapon’

A bus driver who used his vehicle “like a weapon” to ram a cyclist off a road in Bristol was jailed for 17 months yesterday.

Gavin Hill, 29, swerved into cyclist Phillip Mead after a road-rage bust-up. Mr Mead suffered a broken leg and fractured wrist as he was catapulted 10ft across the road.

Hill pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for 17 months at Bristol Crown Court.

Judge Mark Horton said his action “was not an accident” and added: “You used the bus as a weapon to bully and intimidate Mr Mead.”

The court heard how Hill got into a heated exchange with Mr Mead at the St James Barton roundabout in central Bristol at 8.30am on April 5 last year.

Mr Mead is said to have tugged at one of the bus’s windscreen wipers before they both moved away from a set of traffic lights.

In a CCTV clip shown to the court, the cyclist is shown riding in front of the Bugler Coaches vehicle before the bus pulls out to overtake him. But the bus then suddenly swerves to the left – knocking into Mr Mead and sending him sprawling across the road.

Mr Mead, a father of two, spent two weeks in hospital and had operations to repair his left knee and wrist following the incident. He spent six weeks in plaster and was not allowed to cycle for four months but is now back on his bike and commuting to work.

The computer programmer, who lives in St Anne’s with wife Samantha, said: “I think he meant to brush against me and give me a fright. I don’t think he set out to break my bones, or at least I like to think not.

“I remember losing my balance and rolling over a couple of times. I tried to stand up and could see that my bike was under the bus between the front and back wheels.

“It doesn’t matter to me what sentence he gets, it won’t change what has already happened. For me what is important is that he has acknowledged what he did.”

Hill, who had been a bus driver for ten years, described the incident as a “moment of madness”. He was told he would serve half his sentence before being considered for release on licence. Hill, of Frome, Somerset, was sacked by Bugler Coaches following the incident.

Gerald Creed, managing director of Bugler Coaches, said: “We were deeply shocked when we heard of this incident and once we had established what had happened Mr Hill was immediately dismissed as we did not want him driving one of our buses ever again.”