Hearse smashed into by bin lorry wheel
A funeral procession was disrupted when a bin lorry wheel flew up and smashed into a hearse.
Scottish recycling firm, William Tracey, has been blamed by the traffic commissioner after the accident on a Paisley street.
The nearside wheels came spinning off the truck during the drama, with the other ending up on the central reservation of the M8 motorway, reports the Daily Record.
Scottish traffic commissioner Joan Aitken blasted the “shocking” ordeal and hammered the business by pulling part of its fleet off the road.
She said: “Had there been proper wheel security processes the loss of these wheels simply would not have happened.”
The traffic commissioner told how family and funeral directors travelling in the cortege narrowly escaped injury but were left distraught.
She added: “The incident was traumatic for the staff in the hearse, but also for the bereaved family travelling immediately behind.”
William Tracey was forced to pay out an undisclosed sum to mourners after the ordeal on Renfrew Road last Hogmanay.
A probe by the regulator found driver William Brownlie was to blame for the incident.
Ms Aitken found “failure to check” and tighten the bolts led to the accident.
She also ruled “human factors” – including “rushing out to get the job done” and “skipping the vehicle checks” – contributed to the failure.
The funeral directors claimed they had “not found it pleasant” dealing with two managers at the Linwood-based waste disposal company after the “upsetting” accident.
The firm – which has depots in Paisley, Linwood, Beith, Lugton, Irvine, Glenrothes and Newbridge –, has had 23 trucks sidelined for 10 weeks as punishment.
