Bus driver appeal fails after crash kills pedestrian
Rex Martinich |
A bus driver who fatally struck a teenage pedestrian has lost an appeal after a judge found he had not been paying attention to traffic seconds before the tragedy.
Lindsay Francis Selby, 72, received a suspended sentence in October 2025 after being found guilty of careless driving over the crash that killed Tia Angel Cameron.
Ms Cameron, 18, was hit by Selby’s city council bus and pinned against a building about 5pm on March 8, 2024, in Brisbane’s city centre.
Selby challenged the careless driving conviction, but it was dismissed when Judge Bernard Porter handed down judgment in a brief appearance on Tuesday.
In his written reasons, Judge Porter found Selby had not paid attention to traffic as he turned around a downhill corner in the seconds before Ms Cameron was killed.
Video evidence at trial showed the driver swerved off the road and struck the teenager on a footpath after a black SUV braked and changed lanes in front of his bus.
“(Queensland Police) establishing that Mr Selby did not drive with due attention to the movements of the black SUV is sufficient to make out the offence,” Judge Porter said.
Selby’s appeal had claimed the crash was an accident he tried to avoid and he was paying attention to traffic in the preceding seconds.
Judge Porter ordered Selby to pay Queensland Police $1800 in costs.
The bus driver was not in court to hear the decision.
Judge Porter said he did not have to address a major element of Selby’s defence in that he tried to apply the brakes before hitting Ms Cameron.
The driver had already committed the offence of careless driving when he tried to avoid multiple lanes of halted traffic in front of him.
“He only noticed the peril in the last second, literally, and took the only evasive action available, to turn away from the black SUV,” Judge Porter said.
“If he had been driving with due care and attention, he would have either slowed or started braking … at least three seconds before he had to take evasive action.”
Barrister Saul Holt KC told a Brisbane District Court appeal hearing in July that Selby’s actions in the seconds between starting the turn and trying to avoid an SUV in front of him did not amount to a criminal offence.
Prosecutor Susan Hedge argued Selby’s carelessness was shown by his apparent relaxed attitude to the looming impact captured on the bus’s CCTV right up until the last moment.
He was in 2025 found guilty of driving without due care or attention causing death following a hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court.
There was no jury and Magistrate Aaron Simpson determined the verdict following a one-day trial in September.
Selby was also disqualified from driving for 12 months instead of the mandatory minimum period of six months.
Queensland’s maximum sentence for careless driving causing death is 12 months imprisonment or a $13,800 fine.
In his verdict, Mr Simpson said he rejected Selby’s varying accounts of trying to brake but being unable to press the pedal as he rounded a downhill corner near Brisbane’s central rail station.
The magistrate told Selby he failed to pay attention and observe traffic ahead of him as he turned the corner.
”That poor decision caused you to collide with the building and Tia Angel Cameron,” Mr Simpson said.
Selby had eight passengers aboard his bus during the crash and four of them had to be taken to hospital afterwards.
AAP