A KATES Hill pensioner hit and killed by a bus was looking the wrong way when he stepped into the road.

An inquest heard Michael Wilkinson aged 69, died from a severe head injury following a collision on March 24 after he walked onto a pedestrian crossing at the junction of King Street and Flood Street in Dudley.

The force of the impact shattered the windscreen of the single-decker bus and Mr Wilkinson came to rest around 2.4m in front of the vehicle.

Crash investigator Pc Paul Robbins told the hearing CCTV cameras on the bus provided vital clues as to how the tragedy happened, including that Mr Wilkinson was looking to the left as the bus approached from his right.

Pc Robbins said: “As he stepped into the road he did not look towards the bus, the driver could not avoid the collision.

“The split second before the collision he was clearly facing away from the bus, the last image before the collision still shows him looking to his left.”

The inquest also heard the bus was mechanically sound and its speed at the time of the crash was calculated to be between 13 and 16mph, well below the speed limit of 20 at the scene.

Pc Robbins added the recognised reaction time for a motorist when facing with an unexpected hazard is one-and-a-half to two seconds and the evidence from the crash suggested the driver had only about a second to take action after Mr Wilkinson stepped off the pavement.

Paramedics were on the scene within four minutes and Mr Wilkinson was rushed to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham but his injuries were inoperable and he died the following day.

Assistant Black Country coroner, Zafar Siddique, concluded Mr Wilkinson, from Highfield Road, died after suffering fatal injuries in a road traffic collision.