Harry Clarke opted to answer questions yesterday (August 20) about the day of the incident at George Square last year including what happened in the seconds leading up to it.
He was asked: “Can you tell me what you remember, what it felt like to you at that point?”
He told the solicitor general Lesley Thomson QC: “Everything was okay, I seen the Christmas lights in the distance, everything was okay, next minute (he banged the table) it was just like a light switch.”
Mrs Thomson asked if he got “any warning of any sort” but he said “No.”
Mr Clarke said he remembers leaving Mitchell Street and turning on to Argyle Street then on to Queen Street.
He said: “I know we didn’t get far along Queen Street, how far we got I don’t know. I couldn’t say exactly.”
She asked: “Would you have had time to do anything at all?”
Mr Clarke said: “No.”
He was asked: “Tell me the next thing you remember”
He told the inquiry: “Being attached to the hotel.”
He added: “I thought I heard Matt (Telford) shouting ‘Harry wake up”, it was as if he was a mile away in the distance, it was very very faint.
“That was all I remember then I’m a wee bit confused about what exactly happened at the Millennium Hotel.”
Mr Clarke said: “I remember waking up and everything was all smashed.”
Rescue
He said he remembers firemen being there and helping him out from behind the wheel and an off-duty nurse.
Mr Clarke said: “I got out the bin truck and looked round about, there was blue lights, there was everything going crazy. I didn’t know what had happened.”
Mrs Thomson asked: “At the time what did you think had happened to you?”
He replied: “I didn’t know, I came to, I didn’t know what had happened to me, I couldn’t understand it and Matt was there, I was shouting on Matt I said ‘Matt what’s happened’ he couldn’t talk to me”
The court was told by Mr Clarke that his other passenger crew colleague Henry Toal was “apparently in tears”.
Mrs Thomson asked the driver: “At that point did you know anything about what happened to the people?”
He said he didn’t know anything, adding: “The way all the fire engines and police cars that were all positioned I couldn’t really see anything. But, what can I say?”
Mr Clarke became emotional, took deep breaths and a drink of water before his evidence finished for the day.
Routine
Before getting to the incident itself Mr Clarke was asked about his day up until the disaster when six people were killed.
He said he was feeling “brand new” that day and ate breakfast of cereal and biscuits before leaving his house.
The inquiry heard he had sandwiches at break time then stopped for lunch when he had a pot noodle and crisps.
It was also previously heard at the inquiry that around 1.30pm that day, the driver of a bin lorry was seen “gesticulating” and sounding the horn by a member of the public at North Hanover Street.
Mr Clarke told the court: “It 100% wasn’t me.”
He was also questioned about three unopened bottles of beer found in the lorry after the incident and said that he can’t remember when they got them but shop owners often hand them gifts at that time of year, and they would have been taken home.
It is understood Mr Clarke was given a police escort to the court at 6.45am yesterday (Thurs) before being called to give evidence.
He had chosen at the start of his evidence, after being given a warning by the sheriff, not to answer many of the questions put to him.
Mr Clarke exercised that right about a number of questions about medical and employment history.
Health
He was questioned about a DVLA form filled in by Dr Joanne Willox from 2011, claiming that there was no history of blackouts or impaired consciousness in the last five years.
He replied “no comment” when asked if he gave that information.
Mr Clarke was shown a daily log report from April 7, 2010 made by First Bus Inspector John Stewart.
On it, it notes, Mr Clarke told him he had “taken unwell at stop and blacked out for a couple of minutes”.
He was asked if he told Mr Stewart that and replied: “Don’t want to answer that.”
Mrs Thomson also put to him that he had given a different history of events to his GP and occupational health doctor, about the April 2010 incident and he said “no comment”.
The inquiry before sheriff John Beckett QC continues.
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