A pedestrian crossing in a two-way bus lane has been replaced following the death of a nurse.

Judith Brownsword died two days after walking in front of a bus outside St Peter's Church, Brighton.

An inquest heard she had stepped onto the crossing in York Place without looking.

Driver Lee Jones had one second to react and could do nothing to avoid her.

The road at that point forms a dual contraflow bus lane brought in as part of the £4 million London Road traffic improvements in 1998.

Since then, three people have died and dozens have been injured.

Pedestrians were supposed to wait for the lights at the pelican crossing to change before walking over the bus lanes.

But many did not wait or vaulted over the railings, the inquest at Hove Crown Court heard yesterday. An investigation was launched by Brighton and Hove City Council, the police and Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company.

As a result of this, the pelican crossing was replaced last month by a raised-table zebra crossing.

Council and bus company executives believe this will improve safety for both pedestrians and drivers using the bus lanes.

Mrs Brownsword, 57, of Gloucester Place, Brighton, worked for a leprosy charity in India.

She contracted HIV and Hepatitis C after being attacked and stabbed with an infected needle.

She was on her way to an HIV unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital to pick up her latest test results when she was hit by the Number 37 bus on August 30.

One of the symptoms she had complained of was partial deafness in her right ear.

She was preoccupied with her appointment, the inquest was told.

Witness David John said Mrs Brownsword looked to her left and then stepped onto the crossing.

He said: "She stepped out right into the path of a single decker bus coming from her right. The driver did not have time to react at all."

Witness David Page said he found the bus lanes confusing even though he lives locally. He said he thought the dual lanes ran in the same direction until he saw buses going opposite ways.

Lee Jones, the driver of the bus, added: "The bus lanes there are horrendous.

"All of us bus drivers don't like them and we have asked time and time again for some way of shutting that part of the bus lanes down.

"We have also asked for the railings to be raised because people keep jumping over them."

PC Andrew Wilson-Law, who investigated, said Mr Jones had between one and 1.4 seconds to react.

He calculated the speed of the bus at 21mph to 23mph in a bus lane where the mandatory speed is 20mph, but he said the driver would have been unable to avoid a collision even at 20mph.

He said noise from a bus passing the other way may have prevented Mrs Brownsword hearing the vehicle that hit her.

Mrs Brownsword's son Matthew said after the hearing: "We don't want to say anything about her death but obviously our sympathies are with the driver."

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.