Coach driver Adrian Shearing, who killed six-year-old Finlay Connor and left his mother Niki with appalling injuries when his vehicle sped out of control outside Woodborough School in March, has been jailed for 28 months.

Judge Guy Boney QC said he had accepted reduced culpability by Shearing, 52, after hearing there was international concern over public service vehicles with automatic gearboxes.

At Winchester Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Boney jailed Shearing, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving, for two years and four months and banned him from driving, ordering him to take an extended test before he regains his licence.

Niki Connor and her husband Greg, who live at Rushall, sat through the hearing with their heads bowed.

The court heard Shearing, of Millhand Villas, Trowbridge, mistakenly hit the accelerator instead of the brake and his 67-seat DAF automatic coach, owned by Bodman & Sons, of Devizes, sped off at 12mph, just as Mrs Connor and Finlay were feet from the school gates.

On his nearside, the court was told, was a parked Fiat Punto – which parents and children had to walk around in the road – and when Shearing saw Mrs Connor and Finlay appear from the back of the car he panicked and hit the wrong pedal.

Finlay was injured so badly he died before reaching hospital and Mrs Connor, who was trapped under the coach wheels, received a fractured skull and crush injuries to her pelvis for which she spent a month in Frenchay Hospital, near Bristol.

Mrs Connor was then dragged under the coach for 30 metres until Shearing managed to stop it.

Shearing, who drove part-time on school runs, had only driven the DAF coach once before, said defence barrister Michael Hall.

Just before the incident, a tractor had scraped the side of the coach and Shearing, who was described as “annoyed but not angry”, had exchanged details before getting back behind the wheel.

By this time the narrow road outside the school was blocked with another tractor waiting to get by.

Parents had parked further away and were walking in the middle of the road to get to the school gates.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, said: “A second tractor driver, Ryan Lanfear, described hearing the bus rev hard three times and then continuously.

“He could not believe the speed that the bus took off past him. There are quite a number of witnesses who describe the high revs and shooting off at some speed.

“By a ghastly, ghastly coincidence, Mrs Connor was leading her son by the hand around the back of the Fiat as the bus moved off.

“There was nothing whatsoever she could have done. She suffers survivor’s guilt but there was nothing anyone could have done.”

The on-coach video recorded Shearing’s reaction after the tragedy, with his calling out: “Look out, aagh, f***ing thing.”

Mr Hall said: “He was overtaken by bewilderment at the coach behaving as it did.”

The court was told a police examination revealed the coach had no defects and Shearing had suffered what has become known as “sudden acceleration syndrome”.

It is a common cause of similar accidents involving automatic buses where the driver becomes confused when he presses the accelerator by mistake instead of the brake and cannot understand why the vehicle will not stop.

In mitigation, the court heard Shearing was an ordinary, hardworking family man with no previous convictions. He accepted the coach was out of control, and gave his heartfelt sympathy to the family.

Mr Hall said: “It was his error that caused the accident. He panicked and slammed his foot down on the accelerator.”

Imposing the prison term and a three-year driving disqualification, Judge Boney accepted Shearing’s culpability in the death was low, but he said: “The consequences of your driving come very high. A life has been lost at the very outset of its course and you ultimately bear the responsibility.”