THIS is the moment a bus driver is snapped with one hand on the wheel and the other holding an apple while mounting a kerb at the exact spot where a pensioner was killed just days before.

Fred Carter, 75, was found dead at the junction of St Aldate’s and Speedwell Street in Oxford last month after falling through roadwork barriers.

He was struck by at least two buses as he lay on the ground.

When his sons went to the scene to pay their respects days afterwards, they spotted bus drivers cutting the corner and driving over the kerb.

Minutes later, Andrew Carter, 45, saw this bus driver taking the corner with one hand on the steering wheel — with the other holding an apple.

The driver, who was driving a Stagecoach bus, has since left his job.

Mr Carter said: “We were paying our respects at the scene for the first time. But we saw buses coming round the corner were going over the kerb.

“To be fair some were going slow, but others were really fast.

“Then all of a sudden we saw a guy eating an apple and he drove straight over the kerb where my father died.

“You can’t take that corner at speed and one-handed.

“When we showed the driver we’d taken a photo of him, he just shrugged as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Everyone knew someone had died there just days before.

“We couldn’t believe a bus driver carrying passengers would do that just five days after Dad died.”

Mr Carter and his brother Stephen complained to Stagecoach, but the bus company could not prove who was behind the wheel. When they produced the photograph, Stagecoach tracked down the driver.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that we received a complaint from Mr Carter about an individual driver.

“As soon as we received the complaint, the driver was suspended and taken through our internal disciplinary process and he no longer works for our company.

“We expect extremely high standards of our drivers and this particular case does not reflect the professionalism of our drivers across our company.”

Fred Carter, of Vicarage Road, Oxford, fell through the barriers while walking home from The Crown pub on February 19. He was pronounced dead at the scene and two drivers arrested in connection with the death have since been released without charge.

Since Mr Carter’s death, the barriers at the junction have been reinforced and improved.

Police are not currently investigating the apple-eating incident.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk