Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

Formal verdict after docker's death in Burns & Laird car-park

From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated Friday 20th February 1970

FATALITY AT HARBOUR

An Ardrossan Docker was fatally injured when he lost his balance and fell under the wheels of a tractor at Ardrossan Harbour last Friday.
Mr. John Muir (58), 33 Clyde Terrace, Ardrossan, had been working on containers in the Burns & Laird Lines car park when he fell in front of a tractor being driven by his son John (29), who lives at 98 Glasgow Street.
He was killed almost instantly.
A Police spokesman said later: "It was a million-to-one chance."
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From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated Friday 29th May 1970.

FORMAL VERDICT AT INQUIRY INTO HARBOUR DEATH

While men were loading containers on to the M.V. Lion at Ardrossan Harbour last February, an Ardrossan man fell under the wheels of a tractor driven by his son, and was killed.

John Muir, a 29-year-old docker of 98 Glasgow Street, Ardrossan, told a fatal accident inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday that he was driving his tractor slowly forward in the Burns & Laird Lines car park when he heard a shout and felt a slight bump as if he had gone over something.
"I jammed on my brakes and when I turned round I saw my father lying on the ground."

His father, John Muir (58), docker, 33 Clyde Terrace, died instantly from a fractured skull.
He had been standing on the trailer of another tractor, joining the shackles of the gantry crane onto the trailer when his son drove his tractor alongside and the accident happened.

Another witness, Mr. William Walker (57), 35 Oak Road, Ardrossan, who was one of the men working at the ferry said that after he had secured his shackles to the trailer he jumped to the ground.
"The next thing I heard was someone saying : "Oh God, John Muir has been run over."

The jury returned a formal verdict.