A labourer who caused the death of a bus passenger when he grabbed the vehicle’s steering wheel in 2004 has died from an overdose nearly 20 years later.

James Christopher Glenton, then 21, admitted the manslaughter of Egyptian national Mohammed Eltahtawy, 49, after the terrifying incident on a shuttle bus service returning from York nightclub Ikon and Diva.

He was ejected from the club, which has since closed, and intimidated fellow passengers on the bus back to the city centre so much that they moved away from him. When it reached Clifton Green, he pestered driver Phillip Shelley to make an unauthorised stop near Glenton’s home, then grabbed the wheel, causing the bus to swerve into the wall of the Churchill Hotel in Bootham and then crash into a railway bridge. Several other passengers were injured and Mr Eltahtawy, who left three children, was killed. Glenton was jailed for five and a half years.

An inquest into his death took place at North Yorkshire Coroner’s Court today after he was found unresponsive in his home on Bellfarm Avenue in York in July last year at the age of 39.

The aftermath of the Bootham bus crash in April 2004

A postmortem and toxicology testing found high levels of several drugs, including the painkillers amitriptyline and buprenorphine and fatal amounts of cocaine, in his bloodstream.

His brother Wesley gave evidence to the effect that Mr Glenton lived in ‘constant pain’ due to injuries suffered during work on building sites, and took a number of prescription medications. His mental health was poor and he had had contact with both drug and alcohol and mental health support services.

Police investigated Mr Glenton’s death but found no suspicious circumstances and the coroner recorded a verdict of death due to drug toxicity, adding that there was not enough evidence he had intended to take his own life.

Mr Glenton was separated from his wife Kelly and had children.

James Glenton at the time of his 2004 conviction for manslaughter

At the time of the manslaughter trial, it was reported that James and Wesley Glenton had heroically rescued a man from a burning flat near their home in 2003, but the same year James was charged with attempted murder after being suspected of stabbing a young couple. The trial collapsed when the male victim refused to turn up to court to testify, and he was found not guilty.

James Glenton inquest: Labourer who killed Yorkshire bus passenger in crash after grabbing steering wheel dies from overdose 20 years later