Skip to footer

Garbage truck kills six at Glasgow's central square

A garbage truck plowed through Christmas shoppers in Scotland's largest city Monday afternoon.  Local news reports say the driver may have been unconscious.

|
Inform
Police said Monday that six people were killed and several others injured when a garbage truck careened down a crowded sidewalk in Glasgow, Scotland.
  • By William James, Costas Pitas, and William Schomberg Reuters

| London

Six people were killed when a rubbish lorry ran out of control and careered down a pavement crowded with Christmas shoppers in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, people, police said.

"Sadly, six people have died as a result of the George Square major road incident," Police Scotland said on Twitter.

A police spokesman had earlier said that at least seven people were seriously injured and the number might rise.

One witness told Reuters the truck appeared to have run out of control along a pavement in the city center shopping area, close to fairground attractions and an ice rink set up for the Christmas holiday.

George Ieronymidis, 58, owner of the nearby Elia Greek restaurant on George Square, said the truck had lost control, and mounted the pavement, striking people at a "very busy" road crossing before crashing into a hotel building.

"My thoughts are with the families of those involved and the emergency services," British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter.

The police spokesman, referring to the possibility that the incident was an attack, said: "It's a terrible incident but we don't believe that there is anything at this juncture that is sinister about the accident."

Television images showed a large green truck at a standstill by buildings outside Queen Street train station.

Two witnesses on a tour bus said the driver of the truck had been slumped over the steering wheel as it plowed down the street, Ieronymidis said. The police spokesman said the driver was receiving treatment in hospital.

It was the second pre-Christmas tragedy to have hit Scotland's biggest city in two years. Just over a year ago a police helicopter crashed into the roof of a packed Glasgow pub, killing a total of 10 people.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Garbage truck kills six at Glasgow's central square
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1222/Garbage-truck-kills-six-at-Glasgow-s-central-square
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe