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Mystic Mock
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: with joeysteele.
Posts: 61,240
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Mystic Mock
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: with joeysteele.
Posts: 61,240
Favourites (more):
BB2024: Sarah BBCanada 9: Rohan
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Glasgow bin lorry crash which killed 6
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...wheel-bus.html
Quote:
'could have been avoided if driver had told the truth about previous blackout in his job application'
The Glasgow bin lorry crash that killed six people just days before Christmas could have been avoided if the driver 'had told the truth' in his job application, an inquiry has heard.
Harry Clarke was behind the wheel of the out-of-control council truck when it ploughed into shoppers in the city centre on December 22 last year. At the time, witnesses reported that Mr Clarke had appeared to lose consciousness at the wheel.
Today, the inquiry into the incident heard how Mr Clarke had collapsed four years earlier while working for First Bus - but failed to disclose the 'blackout' when he started working at the council.
The driver of a bin lorry that killed six people in Glasgow just days before Christmas had not disclosed a previous blackout that he had at the wheel of a bus, an inquiry into the incident has heard
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The driver of a bin lorry that killed six people in Glasgow just days before Christmas had not disclosed a previous blackout that he had at the wheel of a bus, an inquiry into the incident has heard
Emergency service react to fatal lorry crash in Glasgow
The hearing heard Mr Clarke had three different medical assessments when he started working at Glasgow City Council in December 2010 - eight months after the incident - but did not mention what had happened.
During today's evidence, Dorothy Bain QC, the lawyer representing the family of victim Jacqueline Morton, said that, if Mr Clarke had not been employed, the victims would still be alive today.
She said: 'If he had never been employed by the city council the six people who lost their lives three days before Christmas would still be here today.'
She added: 'If he had told the truth in his form to the council in 2010 and 2011 this all might have been prevented and we would not be here today.'
The inquiry also heard how Mr Clarke's had reported vasovagal - a condition which causes fainting - in 1989, had felt 'dizzy behind the wheel' in 1994 and was told not to drive following a 2003 incident.
During the session, Ms Bain produced the form which Mr Clarke had completed before being hired as the bus driver. It showed he had been off work for seven days in the previous two years due to flu.
She then showed Mr Clarke's First Bus employment record - where he worked before being employed by the council - which revealed he had been off work on two occasions: once between March 1 and 6 2010 and the next between April 7 and 30 2010.
The lack of disclosure was revealed during today's cross-examination of Douglas Gellen (pictured), the cleaning services waste manager at Glasgow City Council
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The lack of disclosure was revealed during today's cross-examination of Douglas Gellen (pictured), the cleaning services waste manager at Glasgow City Council
On the form, both absences were marked as 'sickness'. But the application for his sick pay during the April absence described the illness as 'vasovagal', which Ms Bain told the inquiry was 'a faint or blackout'.
In a second medical questionnaire, which was filled out by Mr Clarke when he applied for a road gritting job in December 2011, it stated he had no absences in the last two years. He then moved onto refuse collecting.
The documents were produced during cross-examination of 48-year-old Douglas Gellan, the cleaning services waste manager at the council.
After showing Mr Clarke's First Bus record, Ms Bain asked the witness: 'If you had been informed that someone had been off work for three weeks while employed for driving a bus, would a reasonable question be 'why were you off'?
'But if he didn't tell you, you wouldn't have an opportunity to say 'why, Mr Clarke?''
Mr Gellan said: 'No, not if he didn't tell us.'
A question on the form read: 'Is there a history of blackout or impaired consciousness within the last five years?'
A box marking 'No' had been ticked, the inquiry was shown.
Ms Bain said Mr Clarke had a third opportunity to declare the bus incident during a DVLA licence check in 2011. The D4 form needs to be completed by LGV drivers every five years once they turn 45.
Doctor Joanne Willox, who completed the form with Mr Clarke, told police in January that if she had known about the First Bus episode in 2010 she would have informed DVLA and the council, making him 'temporarily unfit for duty'.
Ms Bain, who read the police statement at the inquiry, then asked the witness: 'She would have done this because you can't have someone who is prone to passing out behind the wheel of an LGV, can you?'
Mr Gellan said: 'No.'
Ms Bain continued: 'Because the danger to the public would be of extraordinary proportions as we have seen in this case.' The witness agreed.
She also told the witness that Mr Clarke's medical record showed there had been three other reported illnesses connected to blackouts and fainting prior to the 2010 incident.
Mr Gellan said he had never heard anything about the record until today but that Mr Clarke would not have been employed if the previous cases were known.
Jacqueline Morton who was killed when when a council truck mounted the pavement before crashing into the side of the Millennium Hotel in George Square
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Wedding planner Gillian Ewing, who was one of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow
Tax worker Jacqueline Morton, 51, (left) and wedding planner Gillian Ewing, 52, (right) were both killed when the out-of-control lorry ploughed through Christmas shoppers
Lorraine Sweeney, 69, and her 18-year-old granddaughter Erin McQuade were on a family day out in Glasgow when they were struck by the lorry
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Lorraine Sweeney, 69, and her 18-year-old granddaughter Erin McQuade were on a family day out in Glasgow when they were struck by the lorry
Mrs Sweeney's husband, Erin's grandfather, Jack, was also killed when the runaway lorry careered through Glasgow city centre
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Primary school teacher Stephenie Tait, 29, also died
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Mrs Sweeney's husband, Erin's grandfather, Jack, 68, (left) and primary school teacher Stephenie Tait, 29, were also killed when the runaway lorry careered through Glasgow city centre
The inquiry heard that Mr Clarke was initially employed by the council as a school bus driver in December 2010.
He then applied to work in the road gritting department in 2011, before moving to refuse collection. He had to complete a medical questionnaire as part of his application due to the type of vehicles he would be driving.
Mother-of-two Ms Morton, 51, from Glasgow, had left her job at Glasgow's central tax office, early to collect her granddaughters when last year's tragedy struck.
Teenager Erin McQuade, 18, her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and his 69-year-old wife Lorraine, who were all from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, also died when the vehicle lost control in Queen Street on December 22.
Primary school teacher Stephenie Tait, 29, from Glasgow, and wedding planner Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, were also killed when the vehicle mounted the pavement, while ten other people were injured.
Shoppers attempted to flee the path of the vehicle and one couple threw a buggy containing their three-year-old granddaughter on to the road to avoid being struck.
The lorry hit several pedestrians and others were injured by flying debris as it mounted the pavement outside the Gallery of Modern Art and struck a metal litter bin.
Earlier today, Mr Gellan told the inquiry that large bin lorries have been removed from busy Glasgow city centre locations after some crews faced 'verbal threats' in the wake of the fatal crash.
Asked by Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC if any changes had been made since December, the council manager said: 'We have removed large vehicles from pedestrian precincts like Sauchiehall Street, Argyll Street and Buchanan Street at busier times.
'What was happening was we were aware of sensitivities of the public in the city centre when they saw crews.
'We swapped smaller vehicles and were monitoring our crews and some crews came in for verbal threats.'
Mr Gellan added that the decision was made for 'sensitivity' rather than a change in route assessments.
The inquiry, expected to last six weeks, continues.
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