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A lorry driver accused of fatally running over a doctor had his view obscured by a dashboard tray-table he installed to be "one of the lads", a court heard.

Robert Bradbury was driving an HGV that hit Suzanna Bull on October 9, 2017, knocking down the 32-year-old Birmingham Children's Hospital doctor.

She died a short while later on the Edgbaston, Birmingham road.

The 50-year-old lorry driver told jurors he had not been warned that the table posed a viewing obstruction during a routine inspection of his lorry months before the University of Birmingham graduate's death.

Prosecutors claimed Bradbury was not able to see the doctor because of items sitting on the table, Nottingham Post reported.

(Image: BPM Media)

(Image: PA)

The defendant explained he had put it into his cabin because all his colleagues had done so.

When asked whether he was at fault for the accident, Bradbury said: "It was six of one and half-a-dozen of the other."

Giving evidence in the witness box on Tuesday, Bradbury said he thought about the collision every day and had received counselling after the incident.

Nearing the end of his evidence, he broke down and said to the prosecutor: "I turned up to do my day's work that day.

(Image: BPM Media)

(Image: PA)

"Nobody knows what I have gone through over the past two years."

Prosecutor Michael Duck QC told Birmingham Crown Court a tray-table, a sat-nav system, a fan, ornaments and other items had been placed on the centre of the 32-tonne Scania's dashboard.

When asked why he had installed the table, Bradbury said: "Just so I could be one of the lads. They all had one so I got one.

"My gaffer at the time... drove with one in. Nobody said anything to me about it."

(Image: PA)

He went on to claim that he wasn't aware installing the table would amount to an MOT failure.

Mr Duck told Bradbury: "If that table hadn't been there then you would have seen her," to which he replied "yes".

"Did it really take the death of a young lady to tell you that was dangerous?" the prosecutor asked.

(Image: PA)

The lorry driver said he had not had any issues with the table before.

Bradbury, of Cambridge Way, Acocks Green, Birmingham, denies causing death by dangerous driving and an alternative charge of causing death by careless driving.

The trial continues.