Workers in fluorescent jackets are having to direct people around West Bromwich bus station after a zebra crossing was blocked off following the death of a passenger.

Centro, the region’s transport authority, said the decision to remove the crossing was part of a health and safety review after 55-year-old Donald Hunter died after being hit by a bus.

Now extra staff have been drafted in to stop people using the walkway, and are redirecting them to areas deemed safer.

The crossing was removed last month, along with one at Walsall bus station where one passenger was killed and two others seriously injured in separate accidents.

However Councillor Roger Horton, who represents Soho and Victoria in Sandwell, said people will continue to walk there as a short cut to the bus stands.

“It must be a nightmare for the bus drivers,” he said. “They always used to know exactly where pedestrians would be – on the crossing. Now they could be absolutely anywhere and it is an accident waiting to happen.”

Centro spokeswoman Babs Coombes said options were being looked at to provide crossings for passengers. “In the meantime we have put extra staff and signage in place to ensure passengers are fully aware of the crossing closure and are directed to the most appropriate crossing point,” she said. 

Mr Hunter, of Oldbury, died in January last year. Diamond bus driver Alan Willis was fined £750.