LISTEN: Bin lorry crash victim's family solicitor reacts to new report
The lawyer representing Glasgow bin lorry crash victim's family says the Fatal Accident Inquiry report released today shows it would not have happened if Harry Clarke had not lied "consistently and repeatedly".
The lawyer representing Glasgow bin lorry crash victim's family says the Fatal Accident Inquiry report released today shows it would not have happened if Harry Clarke had not lied "consistently and repeatedly".
David Wilson from Digby Brown Solicitors - who represents Jacqueline Morton's family - says the relatives he has spoken to are struggling to "accept the fact that, had Mr Clarke not told lies, their family members would still be alive."
He's been speaking to our reporter Linda Sinclair:
He is welcoming the report's recommendations to tighten up procedures surrounding the reporting of drivers as unfit to drive which may prevent similar future tragedies.
Glasgow City Council says it will take on board all of the recommendations from the new FAI report into the bin lorry crash in George Square last December killing six people.
Representatives of the local authority say they are are currently considering how to implement all of the sherriff's findings.
The council has been urged to carry out an internal review of employment processes to see if improvements could be made when checking medical information and details of sickness absences.
Sheriff Beckett recommended that the council, when employing a driver, should not allow them to start work before references have been received. He went on to suggest that the authority provide refuse collectors with some basic training to familiarise them with the steering and braking mechanisms of the vehicles in which they work''.
Sheriff Beckett made a total of 19 recommendations following the inquiry, including calling on Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to hold a consultation on whether doctors should be given more freedom to report fitness to drive concerns directly to the DVLA.
A consultation should also consider how best to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the information that is available to the licensing agency when it is making fitness to drive decisions, the sheriff said.
This should include increasing the penalties for drivers who fail to notify the authorities about medical problems. Sheriff Beckett also recommended that doctors, and in particular GPs, should ensure patient notes are kept in such a way as to maximise their ability to identify repeated episodes of loss of consciousness, loss of or altered awareness, in the case of patients who are or may become drivers''.
Meanwhile the DVLA should consider if its at a glance'' guide for doctors on medical standards for fitness to drive give sufficient weight to a medical incident which occurs at the wheel.
The sheriff also called on the licensing agency to redouble its efforts to raise awareness of the implications of medical conditions for fitness to drive amongst the medical profession'' and said it should change its policy on investigating concerns from others about a person's fitness to drive so these can be probed regardless of whether the matter has been raised in writing.
Sheriff Beckett also called on the DVLA and the Department for Transport to consider how best to increase public awareness of the impact of medical conditions on fitness to drive'' and obligation to notify the authorities about these.
The sheriff also said the DVLA, the Crown Prosecution Service and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service should review if there are policies in place which prevent or discourage prosecutions under sections of the Road Traffic Act 1988 which deal with failure to notify the authorities about medical conditions and those who make false statements to obtain a licence.
He said: If there are such policies, consideration should be given by DVLA and the prosecuting authorities to whether they are appropriate where the current fitness to drive regime is a self-reporting system which is vulnerable to the withholding and concealing of relevant information by applicants.''
He pointed out guidance on this, including a list of relevant conditions, could be found on the DVLA website.