Comedian and writer Janey Godley was in Glasgow city centre doing her Christmas shopping like thousands of others when she witnessed the aftermath of the bin lorry crash.
The 53-year-old said she felt "horrific" for the families of those caught up in the accident but praised the emergency services and the people of Glasgow.
Describing the scene at George Square, she said: "At the side of the pavement the traffic poles were absolutely flattened so I knew that a vehicle had mounted the pavement.
"There were people on the ground being worked on by the emergency services.
"There was a lot of debris and Christmas shopping scattered all around so it was quite a distressing sight for everyone.
"As soon as I walked onto the scene I spoke to a shopkeeper who said a bin lorry had mounted the pavement and crushed a taxi so I knew immediately it was a road accident."
She added: "It's such a horrific, dense corner for that to happen.
"In the background you had the (carnival) swing still going in George Square. It was a very surreal image.
"People were on the road and their families will be distressed to know they were lying on the street but the emergency services were doing an amazing job."
Ms Godley said: "This was the only day I could get out shopping and I don't need my Christmas shopping now.
"I genuinely have no interest in it, I don't want to go Christmas shopping, but I am filled with the amazing spirit of the people of Glasgow.
"When the police said everybody move, everybody moved.
"What was touching was people went down the traffic and were telling all the buses and taxis, explaining that there had been an accident.
"So Glasgow people rallied round immediately and that reinforced my love for my own city yet again. That's who we are."
Referring to last November's fatal helicopter crash at the Clutha bar, Ms Godley said: "My city has had another drama but my city will come through it.
"My thoughts and respects are with the families tonight and big up to the emergency services who were there on the ground immediately.
"It made me feel absolutely horrific and sad but still amazed that we as Glaswegians were there."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article