A BUS driver who took a safety "shortcut" mowed down three pedestrians, killing one, when he stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake and careered across a busy street, a court heard.

Michael Gilbert's disregard for his training resulted in the death of Eileen Brennan, 85, and left Tracy Naisbitt with life altering injuries, it is alleged.

Mrs Naisbitt's mother Trudy Bowe was also struck by the bus in Northgate, Darlington, but "miraculously" suffered only minor injuries, jurors heard.

As part of his training, Mr Gilbert, 53, had been taught to put the bus into neutral whenever he stopped, which would prevent it from surging forward in the way it did on July 7 2016, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The jury of eight men and four women were shown CCTV footage of the bus careering across the street into the three shoppers.

Footage from the camera mounted on the vehicle's dashboard showed silver-haired Mrs Brennan walking across the street looking ahead and seemingly unaware she was about to be struck seconds before the impact.

She was left underneath the vehicle with her legs protruding below the front of it said prosecutor Simon Reevell.

Mr Reevell told the court on Monday: "What I want to tell you about are the events of a few moments of July 7, 2016. Those few moments, sadly, would end one life and they would change a number of other lives forever.

"At just after 10 to 11 that morning, Mr Gilbert was working as a bus driver, Eileen Brennan, a few days short of her 86th birthday, was out shopping and Tracy Naisbitt was also out shopping with her mother, Trudy Bowe.

"Mr Gilbert, who was at the controls of his bus, hit Trudy Bowe who, you will see, miraculously from the footage, sustained only minor injuries.

"Mrs Brennan was not so fortunate, the impact of the bus killed her. It also ran into Tracy Naisbitt, trapping her and crushing her leg against a shop window.

"Mrs Brennan's tragic death, Mrs Naisbitt's awful injuries and Mrs Bowe's terrifying experience were all caused by Mr Gilbert pressing the accelerator of his bus when he should have been pressing the brake."

Mr Reevell said Mr Gilbert, of New Row, Middleton St George, near Darlington, "ignored" the recognised safety procedure he had been taught.

He told the court: "He took a shortcut, not in terms of his route but in safety procedure. He had been taught how to drive his bus in a safe way and he chose to ignore that training with these consequences.

"When you stop the bus, if you put the gears into neutral you cannot then get the bus back into gear without putting your foot on the footbrake.

"It is perfectly simple. Stop the bus, go into neutral and the failsafe means you have to use the footbrake before the bus can go back into gear.

"If you don't do that, if you just hold the bus on the handbrake and the bus is in gear and then rather than press the footbrake, you press the accelerator you zoom forward across Northgate in Darlington that morning and you injure and tragically you kill."

Mr Gilbert later blamed his mistake on a fault with the Arriva single-decker bus.

Mr Reevell said: "He said the vehicle somehow pulled away by itself and continued to do so despite him burying the brake pedal, as he put it."

He said the CCTV showed the bus's brakelights were not on as it shot across the street and a check of the vehicle showed no mechanical or other faults at the time of the accident.

The brake pedal on the bus always overrides the accelerator in any event, Mr Reevell added.

He said: "In a battle between the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal, the brake pedal always win.

"There was no fault on this bus. The experts will tell you that.

"So his account that the bus somehow shot away and despite burying the brake pedal it would not stop just isn't right.

"The pedal he pressed was the accelerator. He did this as part of a dangerous shortcut with tragic consequences.

"The prosecution case is very simple. If you are taught a safe way of doing something and if you take a shortcut that is dangerous and cause something dangerous to happen then you are guilty of dangerous driving."

As well as the camera footage from Mr Gilbert's vehicle and a bus which pulled in behind it, there was also film from council CCTV.

As part of the opening of the case, Mr Reevell also took the panel through a series of still photographs taken from the cameras.

A passenger who got on the bus in the town centre with her two-year-old daughter said in a statement read to the court: "It felt like he had put his foot down on the accelerator. I kind of knew something was wrong ad the driver didn't wait for everyone to sit down."

Mr Gilbert denies causing Mrs Brennan's death by dangerous driving and causing Mrs Naisbitt serious injury by dangerous driving and the trial continues.