Usually it is the media that first attempts to give some meaning to communal loss, most perniciously in the ascription of blame. This week, the Scottish Crown Office announced that the lorry’s driver, who lost control of the vehicle after he collapsed unconscious at the wheel, will not face any criminal charges, paving the way for a fatal accident inquiry into the crash. And I was minded again of the marked lack of blaming, or naming and shaming, in this case.
I reported on the crash from the immediate stunned aftermath at the scene, through a Christmas week that felt as dimmed as the festive lights around the square. Tough questions were asked of the authorities about vehicle safety and staff health checks. But the driver, Harry Clarke, was not named in the Scottish press until well into the new year, and then in an un-bylined piece in a broadsheet. There was no floodgate of follow-ups, and when Clarke himself issued a single interview to the Daily Record earlier this month, he thanked both the public for their support, and the media “who have not hounded me as they could have”.
Informed – according to local colleagues – by concern for the driver’s state of mind, as well as a tightly controlled police inquiry, it was also reflective of the public mood that regarded a sick council worker as one of their own. As the city council slogan goes: People make Glasgow.
Cumnock Media Class
