Bus company bosses jailed after exhausted Polish driver who couldn't speak English killed workman on a crane

Vincenzo Casale, 44, and David Ellis, 37, were 'morally responsible' for the death of Martin Pilling, a court was told.

The 27-year-old workman was at the top of a 'cherry picker' crane when it was hit by a bus with Polish driver Krzysztof Ociepa at the wheel.

The bus that crashed into a cherry picker truck

Martin Pilling suffered multiple injuries

Mr Pilling was knocked out of the cherry picker's 'basket' and suffered fatal injuries.

An investigation into the bus firm in the wake of the tragedy found a catalogue of safety breaches by the cost-cutting bosses who had employed 100 Polish drivers.

Bus drivers at UK North and GM Buses Enterprises Ltd worked up to 31 consecutive days without a proper break and one Polish employee ripped the roof off a double-decker because he was lost and didn't understand warning road signs.

Bosses Casale and Ellis were sent to prison for 15 months last week after they admitted trying to cover up evidence of the safety breaches.

Last night Mr Pilling's father Tony, 53, who works as a systems manager for another bus firm, condemned the pair for cutting corners.

Vincenzo Casale (left) and David Ellis (right) were both jailed for 15 months

'It was pure greed and profit that drove these men,' he said.

'The driver whose vehicle killed my son couldn't even speak English so how could he read road signs, let alone help the public?

Polish bus driver Krzysztof Ociepa leaves court after being cleared of causing death by dangerous driving

'These operators bear more than a moral responsibility  -  they virtually loaded the gun for this person by allowing him to drive.' Martin Pilling died in the accident in November 2006 in Rusholme, Manchester.

The driver, Ociepa, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after claims he had failed an eye test, gone through a traffic light on amber and not been trained to drive a double-decker.

But the case was thrown out because a sun visor in his cab had blocked his view of the cherry picker.

However a raid on the bus company, which had recruited 130 mainly foreign drivers as part of a major expansion, found 16 unsafe buses at the Gorton depot. Twenty seven drivers had breached a fortnightly rest requirement.

The company's operating licence was suspended but rosters were produced at a public inquiry suggesting drivers had stuck to regulations after all.

However the documents were fake and managing director Casale, of Glossop, Derbyshire, and transport manager Ellis, of Dukinfield, admitted conspiring to create false documents before Manchester Crown Court last week.