HOW SEVEN LIES COULD HAVE COST THE LIVES OF SIX INNOCENT PEOPLE
BIN lorry driver Harry Clarke has lied seven times about his history of blackouts, it has emerged during the fatal accident inquiry.
Given repeated opportunities to admit his health problems, it is suggested he lied to ‘find a job and keep a job’.
His actions led to the death of six people in the bin lorry crash just before Christmas last year, and to his own suspension from Glasgow City Council yesterday. Below are each of the lies which been revealed during the inquiry in full.
2006: LIED TO DVLA
Harry Clarke signed a DVLA medical form in 2006, confirming that he had never suffered any of the listed conditions, including debilitating dizziness.
But this was a lie, because in July 2003 he had been advised to stop driving oil tankers because of dizziness.
Drivers who fail to inform the DVLA of conditions which could affect their ability to drive safely can be fined up to £1,000 or prosecuted following an accident.
But the Crown Office has confirmed Mr Clarke will not be prosecuted over the bin lorry crash, whatever the findings of the FAI.
Senior l egal f i gures have described t his decision as ‘perplexing’.
2008: FAILED TO TELL FIRST BUS BOSSES ABOUT HIS MEDICAL ISSUES
JOINING First Bus as a driver two years later, Mr Clarke lied for a second time when filling out a health declaration form.
His GP, Dr gerard McKaig, said the 58- year- old should have answered ‘ yes’ to a question about suffering dizziness and blackouts, and also to a question r elating t o depression and anxiety.
Two years l ater, the driver suffered a fainting attack while driving a bus for First, passing out for up to ten seconds behind the wheel at a bus stop. Mr Clarke then tried to carry on with his shift, the inquiry heard, driving to a different bus stop before an inspector told him to stop.
He then became ill again, prompting a call for an ambulance which the bus driver refused to take to hospital.
2010: HID ILL HEALTH FROM GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL
APPLYING for a job to transport special needs children for glasgow City Council, the bus driver kept quiet about his recent blackout at First, failing to disclose it in a medical questionnaire.
The i nquiry has heard Mr Clarke admitted to a passing bus inspector that he passed out at the wheel of his stationary vehicle on april 7, 2010. But his GP’ s notes record he told his family doctor that the fainting fit took place in the ‘hot environment’ of the staff canteen.
The ‘disparity’ led GP Dr McKaig to diagnose a simple faint, which he advised Mr Clarke he did not need to report it to the DVLA.
2011: LIED TO DVLA AGAIN
By this time, Mr Clarke had experienced 35 years of ill health, including vertigo, dizziness, blackouts and depression.
But he again hid his most recent fainting fit, diagnosed again as a vasovagal attack, during a DVLA licence check.
Solicitor advocate ronald Conway, representing the family of crash victim Stephenie Tait, has said he suspects Mr Clarke ‘lied repeatedly to find a job and keep a job’. Had the DVLA known of the father of one’s medical history, they may have taken away his licence and livelihood.
2011: HID SICK LEAVE FROM COUNCIL
PROMOTED to drive gritting lorries at glasgow City Council, Mr Clarke had to fill out a second health assessment through private health firm BUPA.
He was signed off for three and a half weeks after passing out at the wheel while at First. But on the form he was asked to fill out, he claimed to have taken ‘zero days off ’ in the previous two years due to ill health.
This went unnoticed, despite his claim on his first questionnaire in 2010 that he had taken seven days off in the previous two years because of the flu – also a lie.
Dorothy Bain QC, representing the family of victim Jacqueline Morton, suggested to one witness that the six people killed in the bin lorry crash would still be alive if Mr Clarke had not lied.
She said: ‘If he had told the truth in his form to the council in 2010 and 2011, all this might have been prevented and we would not be here today.’
2014: LIED TO DOCTOR ON DAY OF CRASH
On the day of the bin l orry crash which killed six people in glasgow, Mr Clarke told a doctor he had never lost consciousness before.
He had ‘never had a similar episode previously’, the bin lorry driver said to the medic who examined him five hours after the tragedy.
When this was revealed, Dorothy Bain QC, representing the family of victim Jacqueline Morton, put it to Mr Clarke’s family doctor that on ‘ seven occasions in total’ the driver had not been consistent with reports on his medical history.
The doctor agreed that this was true.
2014: LIED AGAIN IN HOSPITAL
THE hearing was told the bin lorry driver was seen by another doctor the following night.
When asked again about previous health problems, he said only that he had suffered a ‘panic attack’ a decade previously. again, his GP said this was ‘inconsistent’ with the evidence heard during the FAI.
Mr Clarke’s medical records and the witnesses so f ar at glasgow Sheriff Court suggest he has been lying about his health for almost a decade.