Glasgow bin lorry crash: Hurt girl ‘improving’

Floral tributes near the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow where a bin lorry lost control and killed six people. Picture: PA

THE condition of a 14-year-old girl seriously injured in the bin lorry crash in Glasgow is improving, according to doctors.

The girl, one of four people who remain in hospital, was yesterday said to be “stable” at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where two other women injured in the crash were also being treated.

The 57-year-old man who was driving the lorry was also in a stable condition in the city’s Western Infirmary.

Six people died and ten were injured in the crash on Monday afternoon. Jack and Lorraine Sweeney and their granddaughter Erin McQuade were killed, along with Jacqueline Morton, Stephenie Tait and Gillian Ewing, when the lorry hurtled out of control, hitting pedestrians in Queen Street before crashing in George Square.

John Swinney, Michael Matheson and Glasgow Lord Provost Sadie Docherty yesterday. Picture: PA

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The news of the girl’s improving condition came as candles were lit and prayers said at Christmas morning church services for all those affected. Glasgow services have seen an increase in numbers.

Speaking after yesterday morning’s service, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, said: “At every service, people have been speaking to me about what it was like to be in Queen Street when the tragedy was unfolding. It is also significant that all the services that we’ve had this week have had increased numbers.

“People have been saying that they want to come together to pray and stand in solidarity with those who grieve and those who are traumatised.

“It is said that people make Glasgow, and this Christmas we are once again seeing the people of Glasgow joining together, united in love for one another.”

• Glasgow bin lorry crash: Another tragic Christmas

Christmas lights across the country were turned off on Christmas Eve after 72,000 people signed up to a Facebook campaign asking participants to switch off their decorations at 9pm and hold a two-minute silence to reflect on the tragedy.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia told a 600-strong congregation at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow on Christmas Eve that he had spent time with one of the families who had lost loved ones in the incident.

He said: “I tried to console them and comfort them. We spoke and we cried and we were silent before the abyss of their loss and the random meaninglessness of what had happened.”

The city council lorry hit the first pedestrian near the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art in Queen Street, then mounted the pavement, hitting several other people before crashing into the Millennium Hotel in George Square.

Eyewitnesses said the lorry driver had been “slumped over his wheel” as the vehicle careered out of control. Glasgow City Council have confirmed three employees were in the lorry before the crash.

The local authority has set up a fund for donations, which has already received £60,000 from the council and the Scottish Government.

Police have made a fresh appeal for footage of the incident. Anyone with video footage on their phone or camera is asked to send it to [email protected].