Glasgow bin lorry crash: Driver leaves hospital

The 57-year-old driver of the bin lorry was treated in hospital for a fortnight. Picture: Robert Perry

The unnamed council employee, aged 57, was discharged from Glasgow’s Western Infirmary on Monday.

Police are investigating what caused the driver to lose control of the refuse truck and plough into shoppers in the city centre three days before Christmas.

At the time, it was reported that witnesses saw the man slumped over the lorry’s steering wheel.

A full report into the incident, which happened on 22 December, will be submitted to the Crown Office by the end of the month. Until the police submit this, prosecutors cannot decide whether a fatal accident inquiry will be held.

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They will also have to decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings.

Justice secretary Michael Matheson said of the investigation: “I have been advised that the Crown will consider that report, and by the end of February will provide further details as to the timescale for any further investigations that may be required.”

A 64-year-old woman is the only casualty remaining in hospital. She is said to be in a stable condition at Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary.

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Teenager Alix Stewart, a third-year pupil at Gryffe High School in Houston, Renfrewshire, is understood to have been discharged on Tuesday.

The 14-year-old had gone to meet friends when she was hit by the lorry and dragged along Queen Street, suffering broken bones, kidney and liver damage, and a severe injury to her ear.

Erin McQuade, 18, and her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and 69-year-old wife Lorraine, all from Dumbarton, died in the accident.

Primary school teacher Stephenie Tait, 29, and tax worker 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 in George Square. The square remained closed for two days.

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An area next to the Gallery of Modern Art in Royal Exchange Square, where the first victim was hit, has since become a shrine to the victims, with thousands of floral tributes and candles left by people paying their respects.

On Saturday, the first funerals of those killed took place, when up to 1,000 mourners joined together to pay a final tribute to Ms McQuade and her grandparents at a service in Dumbarton, while 800 people attended the funeral of Ms Tait in Glasgow on Monday.

Last month, Glasgow City Council said that the identity of the driver will be protected indefinitely, along with the two other men who had been in the cabin when it crashed.

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