An inquest concluded last month that Miriam Moulia, a communications manager, died on February 4 after being hit by a bus at a pedestrian crossing on Great Eastern, causing a catastrophic brain injury. Miriam was walking on a pedestrian island when other people crossed on a red man. She followed them, her hood pulled up because it was a rainy day. Tragically, she was hit by a bus and dragged underneath, resulting in an irreversible brain injury. She was declared dead at the scene. While the coroner ruled her death “unavoidable” because the bus driver tried to avoid her, it raised concerns about the East London junction’s precariousness, including pedestrians not having enough time to cross. According to the coroner, there have been 21 collisions at the junction on the road where the incident occurred in the last three years, with nine of those resulting in pedestrian injury.

Miriam, a former student at Darrick Wood Primary School in Bromley, worked as a communications manager in London. In his report, Coroner Adam Smith stated, “Of particular concern is the number of collisions at this junction of a similar nature to that in which Ms Boulia died, which is unusually high.” “The current signal timings, both at the pedestrian crossing where Ms Boulia died (on the North West side of Curtain Road) and the crossing over Great Eastern Street on the South East side of Curtain Road (by the Old Blue Last pub), do not allow pedestrians enough time to cross the road safely.” “At crossing 1, the inter-green period (the period when the road traffic signals are not at green) is only 10 seconds… [this] is insufficient time for pedestrians to cross the road safely before the road traffic signals change to green.” TfL has agreed to formally include the junction in the ‘Safer Junctions’ Programme, but work will not be completed for another 2-4 years. The coroner urged TfL to make immediate safety improvements before implementing the larger scheme, such as increasing the time between ‘green light’ pedestrian signals. Miriam, a former student at Darrick Wood Primary School in Bromley, worked as a communications manager in London after graduating from the University of Greenwich with a degree in Public Relations. Miriam’s family expressed their grief over her death on a GoFundMe page set up in the aftermath of her death. “It’s difficult to put into words our sadness and shock at Miriam’s death,” it says. She was a deeply caring, generous, and kind person who left an indelible mark on everyone she met, and she is irreplaceable to her family and friends. She leaves behind a plethora of happy memories.” Photos taken at the time of the horrific incident show a police cordon in place, as well as fire engines and London Ambulance Service vehicles. “We sent an ambulance crew, a medic in a car, an incident response officer, a command support vehicle, and members of our hazardous area response team,” a spokesperson said. We also sent out a London Air Ambulance car. Unfortunately, one person died at the scene.”