A bus driver who admitted killing an elderly woman as she crossed the road has escaped a jail sentence and been sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work.

James Muir, 63,was not keeping a proper look out when he failed to stop his double-decker bus before it struck Alena Faltyskova in Davidsons Mains in May last year.

The woman was visiting the capital with family to celebrate her 70th birthday when she was hit on Main Street near a roundabout.

Muir was questioned by police he was upset and crying, telling officers: “I just saw her at the last minute. That was it.”

He was sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier today.