No one will be prosecuted for the death of a pioneering Great Ormond Street hospital doctor who was killed cycling in London, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Professor Maria Bitner-Glindzicz, 55, died in hospital on September 20 last year, a day after colliding with a taxi when a van driver opened his door into her path and forced her to swerve.
The van driver had been due at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court last Friday after being charged on April 1 with opening his door “so as to injure or endanger”.
However, the case was discontinued when the court was told that the man, 43, who has not been named by police, had died two days earlier. It is thought he passed away suddenly in his sleep.
The taxi driver, 62, was interviewed under caution by police last October on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.
A file was prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service and last month’s inquest into Professor Bitner-Glindzicz’s death was postponed pending a charging decision.
However, it has now emerged that the case against the taxi driver, led by the Met’s serious collision investigation unit, has been discontinued.
Professor Bitner-Glindzicz, who has two adult children, worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital and carried out research at the UCL Institute Of Child Health into the genetic causes of deafness in children and adults.
Her work focused on Norrie disease, a genetic disorder that causes blindness or severe sight impairment at birth and can also cause progressive hearing loss in early childhood, and Usher syndrome, which also results in sight and hearing loss. Patient groups described her as a “beacon of hope”.
Professor Bitner-Glindzicz’s family are understood to be concerned that “outdated” laws fail to hold people to account for causing another’s death.
Dushal Mehta, of Fieldfisher lawyers, who is pursuing a civil claim on the family’s behalf, said: “People whose loved ones are killed on the roads need to know they are fully supported by the law. I’m not convinced at the moment that is true.”
