Bin tragedy driver is suspended
THE driver of the Glasgow bin lorry which careered out of control killing six people has been suspended from his job eight months after the tragedy, it emerged yesterday.
Harry Clarke was called to a disciplinary meeting last week after a fatal accident inquiry heard evidence that he lied repeatedly to Glasgow City Council officials about his history of blackouts when applying for work as a driver.
The local authority confirmed yesterday it had formally suspended Mr Clarke on full pay ‘on a precautionary basis’ pending an internal investigation into his conduct.
Last week, Mr Clarke’s acting supervisor Alan Kernaghan told the inquiry that the driver had returned to work at the council’s Shieldhall depot following the fatal crash on
December 22 last year, but had not resumed driving duties.
A council source revealed that Mr Clarke, who is due to give evidence to the inquiry, had been on ‘light duties’ at the Shieldhall depot until his suspension. The source added: ‘He has basically been acting as the depot’s yardman, keeping the place clean.’
News of the belated suspension was met with anger by the bereaved families, who have previously expressed astonishment that Mr Clarke has continued to be employed by the council.
A source close to one of the families said yesterday: ‘This is another major surprise to the families, although we are getting used to hearing about important developments at second hand. Like them, the man in the street is probably wondering why it has taken so long for Mr Clarke to be suspended, given what we have been hearing about him over the past weeks.’
The revelation has further intensified speculation that 58-year-old Mr Clarke may yet face charges in the wake of a damning dossier of evidence about his repeated failure to disclose significant details about his fitness to drive before the tragedy.
Last night, Sheriff John Beckett QC, who is overseeing the inquiry, asked Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC to clarify the
‘Another surprise for the families’
Crown’s position on Mr Clarke’s immunity from prosecution.
Sheriff Beckett suggested that, while the Crown has stated Mr Clarke would not face charges following the crash, it was not clear whether that situation applied to ‘disclosures and admissions’ on health questionnaires and DVLA forms filled in by the driver.
The sheriff said: ‘In the course of this inquiry evidence has emerged which might give rise to suggestions of criminality.’ He mentioned DVLA forms and ‘applications and declarations’, adding that such disclosures ‘may raise questions of common law fraud’.
He told Mrs Thomson: ‘I am not going to put you in the position of asking you for an answer now, but I will require an answer from you at some point because the court is going to have to resolve how it is going to deal with Mr Clarke.’
The sheriff ’s intervention came hours after the council took the unusual step of issuing a statement confirming Mr Clarke had been ordered to stop work as a result of concerns raised during the inquiry.
A council spokesman said: ‘The council can confirm that it has suspended Mr Harry Clarke on a precautionary basis pending a full disciplinary investigation. A number of allegations have been made during the inquiry in regard to Mr Clarke’s conduct before and at the point where he commenced employment with the council.
‘These allegations have yet to be put to Mr Clarke and he has not yet had the opportunity of responding to them. The internal investigation will therefore take place at the conclusion of the FAI.’
Erin McQuade, 18, her grand-parents Jack Sweeney, 68, and his 69year- old wife Lorraine, all from Dumbarton, died when Mr Clarke collapsed at the wheel of the 26tonne lorry in Queen Street.
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 at Glasgow Sheriff Court has heard Mr Clarke’s GP, Dr Gerard McKaig, agree with lawyer Dorothy Bain QC, representing the Morton family, when she suggested: ‘Seven times we can see in documentary evidence that Harry Clarke has not been consistent in the reporting of his medical history.’
Yesterday, the inquiry heard Mr Clarke told differing stories to doctors in order to retain his LGV (large goods vehicle) licence after he collapsed at the wheel of a stationary bus in April 2010.
Dr John Langan, of Baillieston Health Centre in Glasgow, exam- ined Mr Clarke after the fainting episode when he worked as a driver for First Bus. The inquiry heard the company’s own medical adviser, Dr Kenneth Lyons, and Dr Langan received conflicting accounts of where the faint happened.
Dr McKaig’s medical records indicated he fainted ‘at work, in canteen, hot environment, no warning signs’. However, two letters from First Bus doctor Dr Lyons clearly indicated that Mr Clarke fainted on a stationary bus.
Under cross- examination from Miss Bain, Dr Langan, 61, agreed there was a ‘compelling, powerful possibility’ that Mr Clarke told differing stories to doctors to retain his bus driving licence. He agreed that Mr Clarke told his colleague Dr McKaig an ‘entirely different’ story to that recorded in the First Bus inspector’s notes. Miss Bain said Mr Clarke used a ‘completely different account’ that he fainted in a staff canteen to make Dr Lyons think his own GP had said he didn’t have to tell the DVLA about the episode.
The lawyer said: ‘All the time he has gone to Dr McKaig, you and Dr Lyons telling you different versions of events. Could that have been to secure his position as a bus driver?’ Dr Lagan agreed it could.
Dr Langan was taken through the DVLA guidelines to GPs, which state that people who have fainted
‘Telling different versions of events’
may be fit to return to the wheel if there were provocational factors, such as a hot environment, prodromal features, or warning signs, such as lightheadedness, and if a faint ‘is unlikely to occur while sitting or lying’.
Dr Langan told the inquiry that he would have deemed Mr Clarke fit to drive regardless of whether he was sitting or standing, as in his view the DVLA guidelines should be interpreted as requiring further investigations if a recurrence while sitting is deemed likely.
Dr Langan said: ‘It says “unlikely to occur while sitting”, not never.’ He added: ‘I didn’t think there was a high risk of recurrence.’
Miss Bain pointed out that three months after Mr Clarke blacked out on the bus he applied for a driving job with glasgow City Council.
Later, ronald Conway, for the family of Miss Tait, suggested to Dr Langan that Mr Clarke ‘lied in his teeth’ to him and Dr McKaig. He said: ‘The reason he got away with it is because you failed to properly interrogate and tease out the details of the incident at your encounter.’
Dr Langan said that the term they use is ‘taking a history’ and said: ‘I think I took an adequate history of the event. If the patient misleads me or lies to me then that’s not usually something I expect.’
a joint minute was read to the court which said Mr Clarke has had no other ‘episodes’ since the bin lorry crash and is generally ‘in good health’.
experts have since diagnosed the driver as suffering from a neurocardiogenic syncope, a fainting condition, the joint minute said.
The minute includes a letter from doctors to Mr Clarke explaining that his condition occurs ‘where the nerves supplying the blood vessels and the heart are slightly abnormal for a short period of time, meaning you do not receive sufficient blood supply to the brain and so you may briefly lose consciousness’.
The minute says a ‘tilt table’ test was carried out on Mr Clarke to confirm the diagnosis on December 29, 2014, adding: ‘Mr Clarke fainted at 27 minutes into the test. He lost consciousness, had an unrecordable blood pressure and his heart slowed to 50 beats per minute.
‘The table was placed immediately back in the flat position and, as soon the table was flat, he regained consciousness and his blood pressure returned to normal.
The minute also records that a sample of Mr Clarke’s blood obtained on December 29, 2014, tested ‘ negative for alcohol, over-the-counter and prescription medication, drugs of abuse and a range of new psychoactive substances’.
The inquiry also heard that the DVLA returned Mr Clarke’s licences to drive cars and LGVs in april only to revoke them again on June 26 after evidence of his medical condition was presented to them.
His ordinary licence has now been revoked for a year, while his LGV licence is revoked for ten years.