Glasgow Bin Lorry Driver 'Lied About Blackouts'

The driver of a bin lorry that crashed in Glasgow, killing six people, lied repeatedly about his history of fainting, a court has heard.

Family members of those who died sobbed inside Glasgow Sheriff Court as the revelation was made at the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the incident on 22 December, 2014.

Documents produced at the inquiry showed that 58-year-old Harry Clarke had suffered a blackout in April 2010, while he was a bus driver for First Bus.

His sickness record showed that it prompted an absence from work of over three weeks.

However, when he applied for a driver's job with Glasgow City Council in December 2010, he declared that in the previous two years, he had only had seven days off work because of flu.

Then, on a BUPA health questionnaire when he was in the process of changing driving jobs at the council, he declared that he had had "zero days off".

In December 2011, a DVLA licence check presented Mr Clarke with a third opportunity to declare that he had suffered a blackout but, once again, he failed to reveal the truth about his medical past.

The details emerged during evidence given by Douglas Gellan, a cleaning services waste manager at the council.

He said that details regarding Mr Clarke's medical history were news to him.

Mr Gellan was asked by Dorothy Bain QC if he felt let down by his actions and replied: "Yes, if you are correct."

Ms Bain also listed three episodes of illness suffered by Mr Clarke long before he was employed by the council:

In 1989 he had a blackout.

In 1994 he reported being dizzy at the wheel of a vehicle.

In 2003, he was told not to drive because of a similar difficulty.

Mr Gellan agreed when Ms Bain put it to him: "If he'd never been employed by Glasgow City Council, six people who lost their lives on the streets of Glasgow just before Christmas would still be here today."

The crash last December claimed the lives of 18-year-old Erin McQuade, her grandparents 69-year-old Lorraine and 68-year-old Jack Sweeney, Stephenie Tait, 29, Jacqueline Morton, 51, and Gillian Ewing, 52.

During his evidence, Mr Gellan revealed that the council's large refuse trucks had been partially removed from duty on Glasgow's pedestrian precincts after some crews had received verbal threats from members of the public in the wake of the tragedy.