A bus driver has today been found guilty of two charges relating to the death of an Auckland schoolboy.
In the Auckland District Court this morning 51-year-old Kereopa Te Waru Puru was found guilty of careless driving causing death and failing to stop after a May 10 accident in Browns Bay, on Auckland's North Shore.
Matthew Scott Taylor, aged 12, was killed when his backpack became caught in the doors of an articulated bus driven by Puru and he fell under a rear wheel.
Judge Jeremy Doogue, reading his decision to the court today, found Puru guilty on both counts.
In final submissions last week, the Crown said Puru was careless in checking the internal and external mirrors on the bus before closing the doors and driving away from the bus stop.
Once the bus was moving, it said, he failed to check the left exterior mirror again, "which would have revealed the boy trapped between the rear exit doors."
The Crown contended that students on the bus has alerted Puru to the possibility that someone had been injured "within moments of the accident" and that he was obliged to stop immediately, but he had continued to drop students off.
Puru was remanded for sentencing until May 11.
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