Health and Safety Executive alleges traffic routes at the station’s northern crossing were not suitable for pedestrians and vehicles
Transport for London is being prosecuted over alleged safety failures at Walthamstow bus station following the death of a 74-year-old woman who was struck by a bus.
The Health and Safety Executive alleges TfL failed to ensure traffic routes at the northern crossing of the east London bus station were suitable for pedestrians and vehicles between 1 January 2004 and 15 December 2023.
Grace Mecaley, a retired nurse, died after being hit by a route 212 bus at the station on 15 December 2023.
A London bus driver who witnessed the collision and asked not to be named told London Bus Forums he had been driving a W19 directly behind the route 212 at the time.
The driver said the collision had left a lasting impact, adding: “It was very, very traumatic for me and many other people who had witnessed this terrible tragic incident. I still get flashbacks now.”
The route was operated by Go-Ahead London at the time under contract to TfL.
TfL is due to make its first appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 25 September. The charge relates to workplace safety requirements covering pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes.
The prosecution follows a series of interventions by the HSE over safety at the bus station.
Inspectors served TfL with a Notification of Contravention in March 2024 after identifying a failure to provide safe crossings for vehicles and pedestrians.
Temporary traffic signals were subsequently installed and the crossing was shortened, while the approach taken by buses was altered in an attempt to improve visibility between drivers and pedestrians.
Walthamstow bus station later closed for six weeks while the changes were made permanent, reopening in December 2024. The works included signalised crossings, changes to the western crossing and measures intended to improve sight lines.
A further HSE inspection in March 2025 raised fresh concerns about driver behaviour and TfL’s monitoring arrangements.
The regulator identified alleged failures to monitor driver activity and provide adequate instruction and supervision after inspectors observed drivers failing to give pedestrians priority. TfL subsequently introduced additional monitoring and reminded bus operators of their safety responsibilities.
TfL records show the HSE issued another Notice of Contravention in October 2025 relating to the layout of the station at the time of the fatal collision. By then, improvement works had been completed.
Ms Mecaley had been an executive member of the Waltham Forest Race Equality Council since the 1980s.
Bus safety campaigner Tom Kearney said:
“I am pleased that the Health and Safety Executive intends to prosecute TfL for longstanding safety failures at Walthamstow Bus Station which appear to have been causal factors in the death of Grace Mecaley from a collision with a Route 212 bus operated by Go Ahead (Northumberland Depot) under contract to TfL on 15 December 2023.
Perhaps this case will inspire the HSE to further investigate if similar systemic failures contributed to:
• the 10 August 2021 death of an adult female pedestrian named Melissa Burr who was killed in a collision with a Route 507 bus operated by Go Ahead (Waterloo Depot) at Victoria Bus Station;
• the 12 February 2020 death of an adult male pedestrian in a collision involving a speeding Route 191 bus operated by Go Ahead (Northumberland Park Depot) under contract to TfL ‘near’ Edmonton Green Bus Station in the London Borough of Enfield.
Furthermore, since we know from the Mayor’s responses to three questions from Keith Prince AM last year that he refuses to update the Bus Data Reporting for 2023, 2021 and 2020 because these three deaths ‘do not meet the Department for Transport’s STATS19 criteria’ for being included in TfL’s reporting for ‘People killed in or by a bus’ for its annual ‘Casualties in Greater London’ annual reporting, perhaps it is time for TfL to reconsider its seemingly witting decision to corrupt its Vision Zero Reporting with undercounts of ‘People killed in or by a bus’ each year.”
