Tragic echo of bin lorry crash that killed six
THE crash is a chilling echo of the tragic accident in which a bin lorry ran out of control and killed six people in Glasgow in December.
Crowds of Christmas shoppers looked on in horror as the lorry mounted a pavement and knocked down shoppers at lunchtime in one of the city centre’s busiest streets.
Erin McQuade, 18, along with her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and his 69-year-old wife Lorraine, all from Dumbarton, died in the incident on December 22.
Miss McQuade’s mother Jacqueline, who had gone to withdraw money from a nearby cash machine, could only watch helplessly as her parents and daughter, a student at Glasgow University, were mown down.
Primary school teacher Stephenie Tait, 29, and tax worker Jacqueline Morton, 1, both from Glasgow, and Gillian Ewing, 2, from Edinburgh, were also killed. The driver of the lorry, who was later named as Harry Clarke, said that he had collapsed unconscious at the wheel before losing control of the truck.
The 8-year-old, who is undergoing tests for a possible heart condition, stressed that he had no problems with his health before the crash. As an HGV driver, he had been subject to regular and thorough medical examinations, and there were no warning signs before he collapsed.
He added that he thinks of the victims ‘every minute of every day’.
‘I understand a lot of people want to know what happened that day. I wish I could tell you but I can’t. I never had anything wrong with my heart until that day,’ he said.
A source close to a police inquiry into the tragedy said that things happened so quickly that two workmates sitting behind Mr Clarke were left with no chance of taking the controls. The lorry crashed within seconds of his collapse.