The collision, on December 22, also saw 10 people hospitalised, including the driver of the vehicle who remains in hospital. It is believed he may have suffered a cardiac arrest although this has not been confirmed.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow city council said she could not confirm reports that non-driver members of collection crews would receive training to show how they might stop collection vehicles in the event that a driver was unable to do so. However, she confirmed that the health, training, and working patterns of collection drivers and crews were all likely to form a part of the investigation.”
And, she added: “Police Scotland is still investigating the incident.”
National guidance
Commenting on the level of guidance crews should be given on stopping out-of-control vehicles Chris Jones, chair of the national Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum, said it can be difficult to offer advice to cover all situations.
He said: “There is no standard practice for doing so but it is not different from any other vehicle situation. The difficulty is that what is right in one situation might be wrong in another.
“It is next to impossible to operate brakes if you are not in the driver seat unless there is some sort of deadening device, which also will not stop a vehicle instantly. Giving people advice to ‘push this button’ in some situations might not be the right thing to do.”
While not commenting on any specific incident, Mr Jones noted broadly that there have been several incidents in recent years where drivers have been injured or killed attempting to stop moving vehicles and that general advice is that if a vehicle is out of control, the first priority is to ensure that others are out of its path and not to stop the vehicle.
He added that drivers are usually regularly screened to ensure they are fit to continue to operate and are monitored to assess their competency.
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