Milton Keynes hospital surgeon must pay damages after crash involving child at pedestrian crossing

An MK hospital surgeon has been found partly responsible for a collision involving a schoolgirl on a pedestrian crossing.

Dr Shanthi Chandran was driving her BMW i3 Range Extender to work at 7.20am on a dark and rainy morning when the incident happened, the High Court heard.

A 12-year-old girl stepped out onto a controlled pedestrian crossing – even though the traffic light was green for vehicles to proceed.

Dr Chandran was driving at 28mph, which was within the 30mph speed limit, when she heard a thud” and her window smashed. She stopped immediately to find that the girl, then aged 12, had been struck by the car and thrown 11 metres beyond the crossing due to the impact.

She suffered a subarachnoid bleed to the brain and has been left with cognitive and psychiatric problems and headaches as a result. She is also at increased risk of epilepsy, the court heard.

The child’s mother was suing Dr Chandran for £225,000 damages, on the girl’s behalf, claiming the incident was caused by the surgeon’s negligence because she was driving too fast given the prevailing conditions.

But Dr Chandran stated that the incident was caused by the child stepping out into the road when the traffic light was green for vehicles to proceed.

The court found that the defendant was primarily responsible for the collision and apportioned liability 60/40 in the claimant’s favour – a 40% reduction on the proposed £225,000 damages.

Deputy High Court Judge Dexter Dias KC said this was because of “the contributory negligence of the claimant stepping out into the road while the traffic lights were green for traffic".

He said: “There is a common misconception that if one is driving just below the speed limit, this is sufficient to be a reasonable and competent driver. It may not be.

“The maximum speed limit is not a target or an infallibly safe measure. It is an absolute upper limit, only justified if conditions and the road situation are sufficiently good to permit it.

“This, essentially, was the error that Dr Chandran fell into.”

The incident happened at about in Buckingham Road in Bicester and the girl is now 18 years old..