Inquest into road death of student

Inquest into road death of student

Published Date: 27 October 2009
By Claire Lewis
A STUDENT would have been "virtually invisible" when she was knocked down and killed on a Sheffield road at night.
Ka Yi Wu, aged 19, of Tapton House Road, was killed as she made her way home from the university library moments after getting off a bus.

As she crossed the A57 Manchester Road, close to her home in Broomhill, she was hit by a cab and suffered serious head injuries, including a fractured skull.

PC Jarrod Barton, a collision investigator for South Yorkshire Police, said because of the dark clothing the student was wearing and the particular form of street lighting operating on Manchester Road, she would have been "virtually invisible".

Mohammed Shafique, who was driving the cab, said he had not seen the woman before she hit the side of his cab.

He said he had been driving within the speed limit and initially thought he had been hit by yobs hurling missiles, which he said was a common problem for city cabbies.

But he said when he stopped his cab and saw Miss Wu lying on the ground he ran over to her to check how she was and asked some passers-by to ring the police and ambulance services because he was too shaken up to dial himself.

He said he had seen a bus pull up but had not seen the young woman getting off it and did not adjust his speed.

"I didn't expect anybody hitting my taxi," he said.

PC Barton said he disputed the taxi driver's claim that Miss Wu had hit the side of his cab, saying all evidence suggested she had hit the front of the vehicle.

He said the number plate had been dislodged, there was damage to a light and the front bumper had been ripped off.

But he said the driver had not been driving at an excessive speed and claimed there would have been little time for Mr Shafique to have seen the student before she began to cross the road from behind the bus as it pulled away.

The cab was travelling in the opposite direction to the bus.

PC Rachel Crookes, from South Yorkshire Police's road death unit, said Ms Wu had been studying at the university library for several hours before tragedy struck.

She was in her second year of a three-year Business Studies degree at Sheffield University's management school.

PC Crookes said police and the Crown Prosecution Service had looked at the case and had decided that an inquest would be the best way of dealing with the death rather than a criminal prosecution.

Assistant Deputy Coroner David Urpeth recorded a verdict of accidental death and said the death was a tragedy.

"While the death of anyone is always a tragedy the death of someone so young is always particularly poignant," he said

"I would like to offer my condolences to the family."

R-I-P.........