A PENSIONER has been handed a £500 fine for failing to notify the driving authorities of her epilepsy before fatally injuring a pedestrian in a road accident.

Maureen Bird, of Denberry Drive in Sidcup, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the DVLA of a disability at Bromley Magistrates’ Court last month.

The 73-year-old was fined £500 and asked to pay a £15 victim surcharge and £70 costs.

At an inquest into the fatal collision last November, a coroner recorded an accidental verdict after hearing that Bird may have suffered an epileptic fit at the wheel of her Toyota at around 3pm on March 27 2008.

She then hit 50-year-old Alan Beveridge in Towncourt Lane, Petts Wood, as he made his way home with some shopping to nearby Beckford Drive.

The inquest heard Bird had been diagnosed with epilepsy 15 years before the accident.

After hitting father-of-two Mr Beveridge, the elderly driver was taken to the Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough with chest injuries after crashing into the back of another car.

During the inquest, ambulance attendant Glynis Phillips said: “The patient continued to ask what had happened.”

And a doctor told police it was possible the driver had suffered from a “complex partial seizure” during the incident.

This meant Bird would be capable of driving but have no knowledge of what happened.

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