A DRIVER has told of his relief after a jury cleared him of causing a woman pedestrian’s death by careless driving.

Mohammed Gulraiz had five children in his car when Nasreen Bibi walked in front of it as he pulled out of a cobbled lane on Church Road, Manningham, Bradford, on February 18 last year.

Mrs Bibi, 56, died in hospital after suffering a traumatic brain injury when she was dragged under Mr Gulraiz’s blue Vauxhall Zafira.

Mr Gulraiz, who was pulling left into busy traffic out of Back Blenheim Road, screamed in horror when he realised Mrs Bibi was under his car.

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He said he was in first gear and moving very slowly when he hit her. He had seen the two women on the pavement to his left, at the mouth of the lane, and thought they were letting him go.

He had looked right and seen a gap in the traffic as a bus was approaching.

When he heard shouting, he stopped immediately and called for passers-by to ring the emergency services.

Mr Gulraiz, of St Paul’s Road, Manningham, told the jury: “I felt like it was the Day of Judgement for me.”

He and others lifted the back of the car off Mrs Bibi and he covered her with his jacket until help arrived.

Mrs Bibi’s daughter, Aisha Bibi, told the trial she screamed for the driver to stop when the front of the car struck her mother and she was dragged underneath.

Mr Gulraiz said: “When I saw the lady I started screaming as well. I thought I had killed somebody.”

Asked by his solicitor advocate, Mohammed Hussain, how he felt when he was told several days later that Mrs Bibi had died, he replied: “I feel extremely bad about it, particularly for her family.”

He said he had been prescribed anti-depressants by his doctor.

After the verdict, Mr Gulraiz said he was relieved his “nightmare” was over.