The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Sheriff brands bin lorry driver Harry Clarke ‘reprehensible’ over offence
COURT: Sheriff’s damning indictment of road offence nine months after tragedy
Harry Clarke, the Glasgow bin lorry crash driver, has been branded “reprehensible” as he was banned from the roads for three years over an incident nine months after the tragedy.
Mr Clarke admitted “culpably and recklessly” driving a car in Glasgow on September 20 2015, to the danger of the public despite his licence having been revoked for medical reasons.
He was given a three-year driving ban, a community payback order with a 12-month supervision requirement and 150 hours of unpaid work when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday after pleading guilty last month.
Mr Clarke will also have to wear an electronic tag for four months under a restriction of liberty order which means he cannot leave his home between 7pm and 7am.
Six people died when the refuse lorry Mr Clarke was driving went out of control in Glasgow city centre. The 60-year- old had admitted driving in September 2015 knowing he had suffered a loss of consciousness during that incident in December of the previous year.
Sentencing Mr Clarke, Sheriff Martin Jones told him he passed the “custody threshold” but that he was legally prevented from jailing him because he was a first offender.
He said: “You must understand that the decision you made to drive your vehicle on the road was one which was wholly irresponsible and reprehensible.
“It was highly culpable and placed the safety of the public at risk. That was a risk which had been fully explained to you and led to the revocation of your driving licence on medical grounds.
“You must have been acutely aware of the possible consequences of you suffering a loss of consciousness.”
Clarke also knew he had lost consciousness while at the wheel of a stationary bus on April 7 2010.
He was reported in the September 2015 incident by a neighbour who spotted him driving away from his home.
He was not prosecuted over the bin lorry crash, with the Crown Office insisting there was insufficient evidence to raise criminal proceedings.
Jack and Lorraine Sweeney, 68 and 69, and their granddaughter Erin McQuade, 18, Stephenie Tait, 29, Jacqueline Morton, 51, and Gillian Ewing, 52, died in the incident.
The decision was highly culpable and placed the safety of the public atrisk. SHERIFF MARTIN JONES