Coach Driver Jailed

26 July 2010, 15:25 | Updated: 26 July 2010, 15:33

A coach driver, who tried to perform a dangerous manoeuvre that led to the death of a Cambridgeshire man, has been jailed.

44 year old Jaroslaw Koltun, from Broad Lane in London, was trying to do a u-turn in his coach in Barton Road, Cambridge, at around 5pm on the 11th September last year when the crash happened.

Jonathan Lunt, who was 50 and from Hardwick, was riding his motorbike with a passenger on the back and crashed into the side of the coach.

Mr Lunt died at the scene and his passenger, a 45 year old woman, was seriously hurt but recovered.

After admitting causing death by dangerous driving, Koltun has been jailed for ten months.

He has also been disqualified from driving for two years and will have to re-take his test if he wishes to drive again.

Inspector Alan Page, from the roads policing unit, said: "Koltun carried out a very dangerous manoeuvre.

He blocked the road by choosing to turn his coach around, leaving no room for Mr Lunt to avoid a collision.

"Koltun could easily have gone to the nearby roundabout to turn around and was under no time pressure to collect his passengers.

It is extremely sad that a life was lost due to such a senseless piece of driving by a professional coach driver."

Cambridgeshire Police say that Koltun had dropped off passengers in the centre of Cambridge earlier in the day, and was under no time pressure to pick them up.

The force also says that he could have travelled in the direction he was facing, and turned around at the roundabout with the M11 a mile and a half away.