Bin Lorry Driver's 'Failings Of Ordinary Men'

An inquiry into the bin lorry crash that killed six people in Glasgow has heard that the lorry's driver would "carry this with him for the rest of his days".

Harry Clarke failed to disclose a history of dizzy spells and fainting to the DVLA and on application forms for city council work, the Fatal Accident Inquiry in Glasgow has heard.

He has also refused to answer questions raised in the inquiry about a previous blackout in 2010, as Sheriff John Beckett warned he could incriminate himself.

Families of some victims have signalled an intention to bring a private prosecution against him.

But the 58-year-old's lawyer Paul Reid QC told the final day of the inquiry that Mr Clarke "does not doubt for a moment the unimaginable grief, loss and sadness that the families of the victims must have suffered" since the 22 December crash.

Erin McQuade and Jack and Lorraine Sweeney, from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, Stephenie Tait, 29, and Jacqueline Morton, 51, both from Glasgow, and Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, were killed as the lorry driven by Mr Clarke veered out of control during a routine rubbish collection.

Fifteen others were injured, many of whom have struggled to continue with their lives.

Mr Reid added: "He recognises that there is nothing I can say on his behalf that will offer comfort to the families.

"He did not set out that day to inflict such unimaginable loss. He is not a lying or deceitful man.

"He is a very ordinary man who has the failings of ordinary men."

Mr Reid said Mr Clarke had intended to answer any questions put to him at the inquiry until the "theoretical" prospect of a private prosecution "became a reality".

He added that his client had been "described as selfish and a coward and that is unfair and denigrates the privilege he was invoking".

Sheriff Beckett brought the inquiry to a close, saying that the "extraordinary circumstances" of the incident meant a determination would "not be achieved in less than two months" but he would try to bring one by January at the latest.

A statement read after the inquiry on behalf of Jacqueline Morton's family said: "Nothing can undo what occurred last December, nor change the loss that we as a family have suffered, but it cannot be the case that another family is standing here next year, or the year after that, because something of this nature has happened again."