Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

to think they shouldn't have named the man driving the bin lorry in George Square?

130 replies

Annunziata · 18/01/2015 13:07

I think he deserves privacy. Poor poor man only went to his work, he didn't mean to cause an accident.

OP posts:
Nancy66 · 18/01/2015 14:25

approaching someone for a comment is not 'harassment.'

expatinscotland · 18/01/2015 14:25

Could be legal reasons, Shelly.

FlossyMoo · 18/01/2015 14:25

No there hasn't and until there is this man should not have been named.

FlossyMoo · 18/01/2015 14:27

Nancy66 Given the tragic circumstances I think it is harassment. They turned up at her home uninvited and lets face it they are not likely to leave her alone just because she said no comment.

lem73 · 18/01/2015 14:28

You are DNBU. I think he will live with guilt for the rest of his life. He needs privacy to cope with it. His name would have come out in any public inquiries which took place. For the daily record to reveal it is gutter 'journalism'.

expatinscotland · 18/01/2015 14:28

Since there is no official statement, everything is speculation, which is all the more reason why the man should not have been named. The press has not named the other crew members who were in the lorry at the time. Let's hope they don't. Some might take it in their heads to assume they were to blame without any proof.

Tinkerball · 18/01/2015 14:29

And why on earth is it necessary for the Daily Record to interview one of his neighbours??

londonrach · 18/01/2015 14:30

Poor guy. I hear he became unwell at the wheel. Terrible accident for everyone concerned. Re 4 weeks to come to terms with it. One of my former friends was a driver in a car that had an accident and two of the passengers in the car she was driving were killed (her friends). I can ensure you its still effecting her life x many years later despite the police saying it wasnt her fault.

Nancy66 · 18/01/2015 14:30

flossy - if they did pursue her after she asked to be left along then, yes, that would be harassment. But we don't know that happened. In this post Leveson era I would doubt it.

pippitysqueakity · 18/01/2015 14:33

Ladyglen. Sorry for your loss. Flowers

LaLyra · 18/01/2015 14:34

All it takes is 5 or 6 journalists to knock on the door once or twice a day and you'd be getting to a situation that could feel very much like harassment.

The you get stupid things like interviews with the neighbours - what does that achieve? There's an ongoing case so neighbours can't say anything other than "X is a lovely man, always says hello" or "Mary was a kind lady, she was always friendly" types of things that don't say anything remotely important.

FlossyMoo · 18/01/2015 14:34

You have your opinion Nancy66 I have mine. I don't believe they should have approached her at all.

ShellyF · 18/01/2015 14:34

Maybe Expat. As you say we don't have an official statement yet..So sad for everyone affected by this tragedy.

LadyGlen · 18/01/2015 14:35

Thank you pippity

limitedperiodonly · 18/01/2015 14:39

Nancy66 Given the tragic circumstances I think it is harassment. They turned up at her home uninvited and lets face it they are not likely to leave her alone just because she said no comment.

FlossyMoo They knocked on her door and asked to talk to her. She said she didn't want to talk and closed the door. They went away. You have no reason to believe they didn't do that.

If they didn't I'd be the first to tell her to call the police.

How is this harassment?

FlossyMoo · 18/01/2015 14:41

I feel it is limited end of story. You don't agree with me and thats fine I'm not asking you to.

vestandknickers · 18/01/2015 14:43

I completely agree Op that it serves no purpose to release this poor man's name. He needs time and space to grieve. I don't think any of us can imagine what him and his family are going though.

It is sad that some posters on this thread seem to want to belittle what has happened to him because he hasn't lost a relative. Since when did grief become competitive? Everyone involved in this terrible tragedy deserves the utmost sympathy.

expatinscotland · 18/01/2015 14:49

The fact is no one but the authorities know for sure what happened, and they may still not be completely sure themselves, hence an inquiry, so everything about the situation, aside from names and that 6 are dead, is speculative except to those authorities working on the case and those they are interviewing or investigating if they are, and we don't know that, either.

It would be more responsible not to name him, but the press did. No taking that back now.

Cannot see what good will come of it, but I guess it can be said they are there to sell papers, not be do-gooders.

Tinkerball · 18/01/2015 14:56

I'm sure I also heard in the news the result of the Police report will not be made public. I really do fear for this mans mental health now as well as his and his families safety. There was no need for his details to ever be published, but yes it's all in the name of sales .....no idea what the Heralds are but the Daily Records I've heard are falling.

AliceLidl · 18/01/2015 14:56

The last time I read about the driver it was being suggested that he collapsed at the wheel, possibly because of a heart attack.

I don't see the point in naming him in the press if that is the case, and if his name being released has led to his daughter being doorstepped then that is very wrong.

I do empathise, I can't imagine how awful it must be to go to work and cause the deaths of six people. I don't know how he will ever come to terms with that, certainly not after just a few weeks, some of which he spent in hospital himself.

I feel sympathy for all the people involved, the men in the lorry, the people killed, the families left behind, everyone who has been hurt by this tragedy.

In fact when I heard about this accident it brought ours back to me because I lost my daughter in a road accident that could have been avoided. Ours was just before Christmas too.

I was pregnant at the time and a man driving a massive lorry with a masonry crane on the back hit the back of our car while we were stopped at a red light and pushed us through into oncoming traffic.

The lights were at the bottom of a very steep hill, and he admitted later he didn't bother to use his handbrake, he just held the clutch because he was hoping the lights would change before he had to come to a complete stop. He was wearing wet, muddy boots and he said his foot slipped.

He shot forward and hit us and because of the size and weight of the lorry he was driving and the slope we were on, he hit us with some force and pushed our car forward even though we did have the handbrake on our car.

And that was it. I went into premature labour and my husband was told they expected both me and the baby to die. Obviously, I didn't die, but our daughter was delivered and we spent two hours holding a tiny, perfect little girl and watched her die because she was born too early and was just too small to be saved.

All because of a man with muddy boots not securing his lorry because it was almost five o clock and he wanted to get the lorry back to the yard.

I know that man felt bad about our baby at the time. And he probably still does, although I doubt he thinks of us all that often now.

I still see the lorry driving over that same bit of road. And I think if he is still driving it, he probably thinks of us then, as he goes down that hill and through those lights. I hope it's made him more careful.

We won't ever get over losing our daughter, and it still feels so unnecessary that we lost her because of a man in a hurry wearing wet boots to drive in didn't use his handbrake.

But I wouldn't want to be in his place either. I wouldn't want to be the person who killed a baby because of my poor driving while I was in a rush.

I have found that I can now have some empathy for him. I didn't at first. Perhaps I would have been able to if he had been ill rather than careless. But I can now, at least a little bit.

I think that's the best I can offer him, that I hope he's more careful now and that I can accept how terrible it must be to live your life knowing you took someone else's so carelessly.

I wouldn't want to be in that situation, living with that knowledge for the rest of my life, and I do have enough empathy in me to feel sorry for him that he does. Even though he could have prevented it by driving differently.

mirren3 · 18/01/2015 14:56

Personally I would not buy the DR ever, I do live in Scotland and think some of the stories they pass as "journalism" beggar belief.
Maybe we should email them and the journalist involved to tell them what we think, and see how they like being harassed.

LikeIcan · 18/01/2015 14:57

I'm not sure on this one tbh, can see both side - but surely it would have been impossible to keep his identity a secret for ever? his work colleagues would talk & word gets around pretty quick.

& I agree that he'll never get over this.

SugarPlumpFairy3 · 18/01/2015 15:04

Oh Alice Flowers.

Annunziata · 18/01/2015 15:06

Alice I am so sorry about your wee girl Flowers

OP posts:
pinkstinks · 18/01/2015 15:07

Oh Alice! Your story made me well up. Flowers Flowers

Swipe left for the next trending thread