Police have been given a dressing down in court for "professional incompetence" after failing to provide victim impact statements well ahead of a bus driver's sentencing for a fatal crash.

Lindsay John Taylor was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of causing death and injury by careless driving.

In October last year, Taylor ran a red light in central Christchurch and killed 45-year-old Trish Beets, a passenger in a vehicle driving through the intersection on a green light.

He was sentenced to 200 hours of community work, disqualified from driving for nine months, and ordered to pay $3800 in reparations.

At Taylor's sentencing, Judge Gary MacAskill reserved harsh criticism for the police, who had provided victim impact statements to the court on the day of sentencing.

READ MORE:

*Bus driver admits running red light and causing fatal crash in central Christchurch

*Drivers at odds over who is to blame for fatal crash in central Christchurch

They reached the judge just as the sentencing session began.

"It is all too common. This is just another example," he said at the end of the sentencing session.

"It is professional incompetence on the part of the police."

The victim impact statements were ordered in April, when Taylor pleaded guilty and was remanded for sentence.

The police had months to prepare the statements but according to the dates on the documents they had been done at the last moment.

"If it happens again, the roof will fall – I speak metaphorically," MacAskill said. "I have had enough."

The police have been approached for comment.

Taylor, 62, was momentarily distracted when he drove his bus through the red light at the Kilmore St-Colombo St intersection about 8pm on October 4.

Beets was fatally injured and died at the scene. The driver, her flatmate, was hospitalised for six days. They had been on their way to the supermarket.

Taylor was a loner who had never offended before, and was thought of highly by his employer. He was not married and had no children.

Since the accident, he had lost his job, his confidence and would lose his driver's licence, said defence counsel John Brandts-Giesen.

He now lived in a caravan on a friend's property in Oxford and was on an unemployment benefit despite wanting to work.

The accident arose from "a momentary act of inattention," Taylor said through his lawyer. He believed he had been distracted by jaywalkers.

He expressed regret to Beets' family.

Her daughter, Chloe Beets, told the court of her continuing pain after her mother's death. It had taken an emotional toll, and she still struggled with nightmares, she said.

She criticised the bus Red Bus company for bad driving she saw by its drivers.

Judge MacAskill said: "Sometimes we all make mistakes on the road, with our driving. Most times nothing happens and sometimes something terribly tragic happens, like this."

He said Chloe Beets had "bravely" read her statement in court.

MacAskill also criticised the Community Probation Service for not providing information about the financial harm suffered by the person injured, and the family of the person killed.

He said the issue was not even mentioned in Taylor's pre-sentence report.

The probation officer in court acknowledged it was an oversight.