Harry Clarke, 58, was giving evidence for a second day at the inquiry at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
For a second time, Mr Clarke – who was given a police escort to court – chose to exercise his legal right not to answer a series of questions he was asked.
Ronald Conway, representing the family of victim Stephanie Tait, said: “Mr Clarke I would give you the chance to say ‘I’m sorry I told lies in April 2010 and I know and accept that those lies led to the deaths of those innocent people’.
“Can you say that Mr Clarke?”
Mr Clarke replied: “No I can’t say that.”
Dorothy Bain the QC for Jacqueline Morton’s family told Mr Clarke “It’s actually all your fault” and that he had told a “pack of lies”.
She told him that it was “remarkable” and “incredible” he had asked for his licence back after the accident.
Miss Bain said: “You have taken a chance and it’s taken the lives of six innocent people.”
Evidence
Jacqueline McQuade, the mum of 18-year-old Erin McQuade who was killed alongside her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and his wife Lorraine, 69, left the court during his evidence.
The inquiry into the deaths of the six people who died on December 22 last year, days before Christmas started last month on July 22.
The six were killed when a bin lorry, driven by Mr Clarke, careered into them on Glasgow’s Queen Street.
Gillian Ewing, 52 , from Edinburgh, Jacqueline Morton, 51,and 29-year-old Stephenie from Glasgow also lost their lives.
Miss Bain put to Mr Clarke that he told a “pack of lies” on medical questionnaires in 2008 when applying for his bus driver role, in 2010 in an application to the council, and in 2011, when he was promoted.
He told the inquiry that he didn’t want to answer each of the questions.
She said: “You chose to lie about your health record”
Mr Clarke replied: “I don’t wish to answer that.”
Miss Bain said: “You took a chance and it’s taken the lives of six innocent people.”
The driver replied: “I don’t wish to answer that.”
She continued: “The difference between you and them Mr Clarke, you had a choice and they didn’t.”
He told the inquiry: “I don’t wish to answer that.”
Miss Bain said: “They had no choice and they had no chance.”
Again he refused to answer.
Miss Bain said: “If you told the truth, all of this could have been prevented. It’s actually all your fault. Do you see that?”
Mr Clarke replied: “I don’t want to answer that.”
Health
The QC said to Mr Clarke that had he told the truth in December 2011, when he went for a promotion that he would “never have been retained” but he didn’t answer.
She continued: “The six innocent people who lost their lives would be here today.
“To speak to their families and spend time with their families and enjoy their lives with their families.
“If you told the truth.”
After each statement he told her “I don’t wish to answer that.”
Mr Clarke was asked by Miss Bain: “If your daughter was killed and there was a public inquiry trying to find out what might have prevented her death.
“What would you hope those who might have some information about it would do, at that public inquiry?”
He said that he didn’t want to answer the question.
Miss Bain: “Given the support and care that that you have been shown by everybody else, do you not have the decency to think about somebody other than yourself on this one occasion?”
Mr Clarke replied: “I don’t wish to answer that question.”
Diagnosis
The inquiry heard Mr Clarke was diagnosed by Professor Andrew Rankin this year, as having Neurocardiogenic syncope.
Miss Bain told Mr Clarke that it was made clear to him by the professor that he shouldn’t be driving HGVs.
She said: “Do you know what you had the audacity to do? Ask for your licence back, it’s actually incredible. Isn’t it?”
He said he didn’t want to answer.
She continued: “It’s actually incredible, it’s beyond belief. How could you have done that? How could you?”
Mr Clarke did not answer that or when she put to him “It’s taken the tragedy of December 2014 to uncover the web of lies that you spun.”
She said: “You’re sitting there today and you look as if you have not got the slightest conscious about it Mr Clarke.”
Mr Clarke was asked about his time in hospital after the incident and accepted that he was well-looked after and supported.
She asked him about his privacy being respected while he was in hospital. He asked her who it was respected by.
She said: “You had a police presence outside your room. I also understand to prevent unsolicited calls or people calling and public upsetting you, between the police and the medical staff they adopted a code word, did you know that?
“To protect your privacy and make sure you were alright.”
Mr Clarke said: “No, I didn’t know that.”
Code
Medical records with a note saying that the code word “Rudolph” was used to identify police when they inquired about Mr Clarke, was shown to the inquiry.
Ronald Conway, representing the family of victim Stephenie Tait, described her as a “beautiful young woman.”
He told Mr Clarke that for her family, on the day of the tragedy “the clock stopped for them”.
Mr Clarke said: “I fully appreciate that.”
Mr Conway said: “I’m going to give you one last chance to face the truth and to deal with the truth, in your own interests as much as anyone’s.
“I’m going to ask that you say sorry to the persons who died that day.
“I don’t mean sorry in the sense, I’m sorry it’s raining, and I don’t mean I’m sorry in the sense, I’m sorry it was an accident.
“Those words are cheap.
“Mr Clarke, I would give you the chance to say ‘I’m sorry I told lies in April 2010 and I know and accept that those lies led to the deaths of those innocent people’.
“Can you say that Mr Clarke?”
Mr Clarke replied: “No I can’t say that.”
Mr Conway added: “You will never get another chance to say that.”
The driver said: “I think I have already answered that.”
The inquiry before sheriff John Beckett QC continues this week.
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