THE driver of a runaway bin lorry that killed six people in Glasgow told a nurse at the scene he could not remember what had happened before asking: "Have I had a heart attack?"
Harry Clarke was found by the woman, conscious, still strapped in his seat after the bin lorry had crashed into the side of a hotel in George Square on December 23 last year.
Staff nurse Lauren Mykoliw, who had been attending the Christmas carnival in the square, told a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the tragedy yesterday she went to the scene after hearing a loud bang.
Ms Mykoliw initially thought that a part had fallen from the big wheel fairground attraction, but the noise was the sound of the lorry hitting the side of the Millennium Hotel.
Ms Mykoliw rushed to the aid of the driver of a silver taxi that had been hit by the lorry before she was directed to Mr Clarke nearby.
She found him in the cab, concious and with his seat belt on.
She told the inquiry: “He was pale, he looked shocked and a little bit sweaty.
“He asked me if he had had a heart attack.” She told him she could not determine whether he had or not.
Ms Mykoliw, 28, said Mr Clarke said repeatedly that he did not know what had happened.
She said Mr Clarke did not complain of pain and said he “seemed well” given the circumstances.
The nurse spotted unopened beer bottles in the cab and asked Mr Clarke if he had been drinking and he said no.
The driver was then helped out of the lorry by firefighters, the inquiry heard.
Paramedic Ronald Hewitson, 52, treated Mr Clarke on the ground beside the lorry.
He said he checked his blood pressure, oxygen saturation levels, blood sugar levels and did a heart trace and all produced normal results.
The witness said: “He seemed slightly confused, slightly pale and I asked him if I could do checks which he agreed to.”
Mr Hewitson said: “Further on he asked if he had had a heart attack or some sort of event which at that point I couldn’t classify.”
Mr Clarke told the medics that he could remember being at the lights before the crash and told Mr Hewitson the next thing he remembered was someone “shaking” him.
The inquiry also heard from a shopper who said he witnessed the driver of a bin lorry acting “slightly aggressively” and gesticulating towards a red Audi just before the Queen Street crash.
Andrew Wilson, 38, said the exchange took place at the junction of North Hanover Street and Cowcaddens Road.
The baker said this happened “around 40 minutes before the crash.”
Mr Wilson said: “As they approached the lights the car seemed to accidentally cut in front of the bin lorry.
“The driver of the bin lorry was beeping the horn and looked to be gesticulating slightly aggressively for a council employee towards a member of the public.”
The inquiry heard that it could not be determined if the lorry was being driven by Mr Clarke.
Both of the passengers in the lorry have previously told the inquiry that they do not recall the incident. Matthew Telford said it this was not something Mr Clarke would do, when asked.
The inquiry also heard that risk assessments carried out on the bin lorry collection route did not take into account dangers when it was travelling through the streets.
Robert Soutar, 50, depot manager with Glasgow City Council’s refuse department, was asked by Mark Stewart QC: “Do you think a vehicle travelling in the public highway presents bigger danger to pedestrians than a stationary vehicle?”
“Of course it does, “ Mr Soutar said.
Erin McQuade, 18, and her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and Lorraine Sweeney, 69, from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, were struck and killed by the lorry.
Stephenie Tait, 29, and Jacqueline Morton, 51, both from Glasgow, and Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, also died.
The inquiry in Glasgow continues.
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