Woman had leg amputated after being hit by bus in Glasgow city centre

A woman lost her leg after she was run over by a bus while Christmas shopping in Glasgow city centre.

Roseanne Coyle, 62, is said to have been struck on Hope Street on November 10, 2022.

Joseph Connelly is on trial, accused of causing serious injury to Miss Coyle by careless driving.

Court papers state the 57-year-old of Paisley, Renfrewshire, drove with cannabis in his system while wearing an earphone.

It is alleged that Connelly failed to keep a proper lookout and caused his vehicle to strike Miss Coyle on the body.

The charge says Miss Coyle was thrown under the wheels of the bus to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of her life.

Miss Coyle appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday as a witness while in a wheelchair.

She told the court that she was Christmas shopping on the afternoon of the incident and had intended to catch the number 75 bus home to the city’s Possilpark from the stop across the road.

Miss Coyle claimed she pressed the button on the traffic lights and waited for the green man before crossing the road.

She said: “As I crossed the road, I got hit by a bus and I can’t remember anything after that.”

The witness stated that she was told she was hit by a bus after the incident and claimed that her next memory was being at the side of the road while she suffered pain in her leg.

She stated that she was taken by ambulance to hospital and her lower left leg was amputated.

The witness added that she no longer goes out the house as a result of the incident.

CCTV footage from a bus was played to the court on a number of occasions.

Tony Bolland, defending, put it to Miss Coyle that the footage showed that she did not stand and wait at the lights. She replied: “No, I definitely did.”

The lawyer later stated that she walked past the lights and Miss Coyle replied: “I must have, I walked at the lights and pressed the lights I walked up to. I know what I did that day.”

Mr Bolland also put to the witness that she told one paramedic at the time that she walked across the road without looking.

He also claimed that Miss Coyle told another paramedic that she was “unsure” if it was a bus or another vehicle that hit her.

Miss Coyle replied: “No, that’s not true, I didn’t say that to anyone at all. I definitely got a bus ran over me.”

Jurors watched CCTV from inside the bus when the alleged incident occurred.

A police sergeant remarked that Connelly was wearing an AirPod in his left ear, which could “potentially distract” someone.

The witness then stated that she saw Connelly “glance” down and “take his eyes off the road.”

In cross-examination, the witness told Tony Bolland, defending, that there was no evidence that anything was playing through the AirPod or that he had another in his right ear.

The police sergeant later stated that Miss Coyle was “in part to blame as she could have crossed the road at the crossing and looked to see there was no traffic coming.”

Another officer later told jurors that Connelly stated “it was me” when asked who the driver was.

The officer described Connelly as “pleasant” and “quite concerned with regard to the state of the injured party and how she was.”

The trial continues tomorrow before Sheriff Paul Reid.