Driver hiring ‘inadequate’
Medical history can be acquired for £50, says lawyer
AN inquiry into the George Square bin lorry tragedy has heard claims that Glasgow City Council’s recruitment process was “not adequate” and it would have cost officials just £50 to get the driver’s medical records revealing his previous health problems.
It came as a lawyer for one of the six victims said the probe will eventually show Harry Clarke is “not a monster” or a “criminal mastermind” but a man who repeatedly lied to get a job and keep it.
Mr Clarke, 58, who is still employed by the local authority, was driving the truck in the city centre in December last year when he appeared to lose consciousness at the wheel and the lorry veered out of control.
He had suffered from blackouts and dizziness in the past but failed to notify the local authority when he applied for his post there.
The Fatal Accident Inquiry yesterday heard evidence from council HR manager Geraldine Ham.
She agreed with Dorothy Bain QC, representing the family of victim Jacqueline Morton, that where Mr Clarke “doesn’t tell the council the truth, the recruitment process was not adequate in order to prevent his employment”.
The QC went on: “For that reason you would agree, I presume, that the recruitment process wasn’t adequate?”
Ms Ham responded: “There’s room for improvement, yes.”
Solicitor Advocate Ronald Conway, representing the family of Stephanie Tait, told Ms Ham during the hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court that the cost of obtaining an individual’s medical records was just £50.
He put it to the witness that given the annual cost of paying the 24 employees the council took on when Mr Clarke was hired was in the region of half a million pounds, the extra cost in gaining access to their medical records “would not be disproportionate in the circumstances, would it?” Miss Ham replied: “No.” Mr Conway then went on to say: “I suspect that at the end of this, we’re going to find out that Mr Clarke is not a monster, that he’s not a criminal mastermind, but that he’s a person who has lied repeatedly to get a job and to keep a job.”
He added “there are a lot of Mr Clarkes out there”, a lot of “fantasists and fabulists” who will lie to gain employment.
However, Ms Ham – who told the inquiry that potential employees must give permission for the council to access their medical records – revealed that addressing this by seeking all of a prospective employee’s records could cause problems as the information asked for has to be relevant to the post applied for.
Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC put it to the manager that one option that could limit the information being provided would be to send the applicant’s GP a medical questionnaire.
Ms Ham replied: “Yes, it could be.”
The inquiry heard last week that Mr Clarke complained to his doctor of feeling dizzy as far back as 1976.
A catalogue of almost 30 entries on his medical record was also revealed, including reports of vertigo, anxiety, depression, lethargy, stress and “vasovagal” fainting episode induced by a nervous reflex.
However, he failed to disclose his medical problems when applying for his jobs with the council and his previous employer First Bus. It has also been claimed that he lied on a DVLA form.
Erin McQuade, 18, her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and his 69-year-old wife Lorraine, all from Dumbarton, died when the lorry lost control in Queen Street and George Square on December 22.
Stephenie Tait, 29, and Jacqueline Morton, 51, both from Glasgow, and Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, were also killed when the truck mounted the pavement before crashing into the side of the Millennium Hotel.
The inquiry, before Sheriff John Beckett QC, continues.