STUDENT WAS DRAGGED HALF MILETO DEATH UNDER A BUS

A CAMBRIDGE University medical ­student died after being dragged half a mile under a bus, a court heard yesterday.

Mingwei Tan, 20, suffered massive ­injuries when hit by the double-decker as she crossed the road in the early hours.

The driver didn’t know he had hit her and even stopped to pick up a passenger while Ms Tan was under the vehicle, it was alleged.

The Singaporean student’s body, described as looking like a “plastic doll” in a bundle of clothes, came free 900 yards from the collision in Hampstead, north London, the court heard.

Iranian-born driver Shahriar Firouzian finished his shift and only discovered what had happened when he turned up for work the next day. He told police he thought he “may have hit a fox” that night, London’s Blackfriars Crown Court was told.

Firouzian, 52, of Watford, Herts, denies causing death by careless driving in September 2010. A jury was shown CCTV f­ootage from Firouzian’s bus and another double-decker Ms Tan had just got off moments before she was hit. 

Hamish Reid, prosecuting, said of Firouzian: “He is turning right and she is crossing the road directly in front of him. He totally fails to see her. She is caught by the bus and dragged underneath.”

Paul Kenny, who was driving a separate bus, was the first to spot the body. “I saw what I thought was a bundle of clothes scattered on the southbound carriageway,” he said. “I also noticed the face of a person. It didn’t look real and I thought it could be a plastic doll.”

He called the emergency services and rushed over but Ms Tan, in her third-year at Cambridge, was already dead.

A couple of hours earlier, Ms Tan had flown back with fellow medical student Mike Money from a ­holiday in Cyprus.