A supermarket shuttle bus driver was sentenced for six months with a one-year reprieve for killing an elderly woman as he started the vehicle while the door was still opening, Putuo District People’s prosecutors said yesterday.

On January 4 last year, the woman, surnamed Wang, who was in her eighties, fell off the bus while alighting, as the vehicle suddenly moved again, the prosecutors said. Her right leg was crushed by a rear wheel.

The driver, surnamed Xu, 54, immediately called the emergency center and the police. “I was too tired then, driving a shuttle bus is even more exhausting than driving a taxi,” said Xu, a former taxi driver. He told prosecutors he had driven for more than nine hours that day. His shift was supposed to run from 7am to 3:30pm. But there was no one to take over his duty that day. “I didn’t even have time for lunch,” he said. “I wanted to take a rest, but as there’s no one else around, my director asked me to drive for one more service.”

Wang had injuries to her pelvis and right leg, while the main cause of her death was hemorrhagic shock.

The prosecutors considered Xu was fully responsible for the accident as he had started the vehicle while closing the door.

The supermarket that employed Xu has compensated the family of the deceased, and the family had forgiven Xu, the prosecutors said.