A coroner has called for a review of “two-stage” pedestrian crossings after a student was killed by a bus.
Southwark assistant coroner Christopher Williams said there was a “strong possibility” that Julia Luxmoore Peto, 27, had been looking at the wrong “green man” when she stepped in front of a 225 single-decker at Deptford Broadway on September 16 last year.
The trainee speech therapist, who was at City University, suffered a “catastrophic head injury”. She died in King’s College hospital the following day.
Ms Luxmoore Peto had crossed in front of two eastbound lanes of traffic that had stopped at a red light.
She then tried to cross from a pedestrian island when the bus had a green light. At the time, a green man on the far side of the road was illuminated for pedestrians to cross the two westbound lanes.
Mr Williams, in a prevention of future deaths notice to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, said it was impossible to prove Ms Luxmoore Peto had been confused.
But he wrote: “I remain concerned that there is a strong possibility that she was distracted or confused by the green pedestrian light in the westbound carriageway.”
Transport for London told the inquest, in March, that it had already fitted “louvres”, or filters, to the pedestrian signals, on police advice.
The coroner told Mr Grayling: “I remain concerned that there are likely to be other ‘two-stage’ pedestrian crossings throughout England and Wales which also do not currently have louvres to prevent pedestrian ‘see through’ and road markings to warn pedestrians of traffic direction.”
The DfT said it was “updating planning guidance to help councils ensure pedestrian crossings are clear and not misleading”.
