Safety/crush issue

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

It didn't help matters that it was tipping down and this ambulance was parked immediately outside the exit closest to the North Stand.
Because it was raining, people were walking along the concourse and then out of this exit, rather than exiting the way closest to their seats, so there were far more using this exit than normally would.

It's just these combinations of circumstances that do tend to cause disasters, and whilst there obviously wasn't one on Saturday the situation was far from perfect and was potentially dangerous.

Lessons should be learnt from this, and it will be raised with RFC.

Good point on the walking along the concourse because of the rain, perhaps it needs to have fencing making folk leave by closest exit to their tunnel from the stands. May not be that easy, but perhaps it could be looked at.

[Rex]

Or use the stewards for their actual purpose of crowd control. As they would have been well aware of this accident happening they need to react a little faster to ensure safety for all is paramount. The senior stewards are miked up so surely communication was never an issue. Just out of interest does the ground have safety barriers in a readily identifiable location to ensure areas can be cordoned off and manned in the likely event.

There was no warning and no effective control inside or outside. The paramedics i am sure would have appreciated the support in this instance.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

fair comment.

[Sun Tzu]

Or use the stewards for their actual purpose of crowd control. As they would have been well aware of this accident happening they need to react a little faster to ensure safety for all is paramount. The senior stewards are miked up so surely communication was never an issue. Just out of interest does the ground have safety barriers in a readily identifiable location to ensure areas can be cordoned off and manned in the likely event.

There was no warning and no effective control inside or outside. The paramedics i am sure would have appreciated the support in this instance.

I suspect an issue would have been that post match all stewards would have been deployed to their usual stations for crowd control and whether they have the flexibility to take them from one spot and move them to another I have no idea. To be honest it would probably have taken just one steward with a megaphone to deal with it.

There are safety barriers, they use them at the away end to form a sterile area around the gates but the practicality of shifting them at short notice must be questionable. Again you'd need bodies to do the shifting and posibly be moving them through crowds.

I'd be amazed if the Control Room weren't aware of the ambulance and where it was as it would have been called by them in the first place. The stand supervisor would also have known and he has stewards outside at the final whistle.

With a smallish and pretty passive away support you would think that this might have been a time when the safety gate could have been opened, although would that have simply caused more chaos with a two way flow of people, people changing direction etc etc.

Finally I would have though a better otpion would have been to run the ambulance into the corner section where the grounsdmen keeps his kit and take the casualty out through the side exit - would all have been well out of the way then !

We're all experts of course !!

[Rex]

All valid points.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Except for Tzu being an expert. xxxxx

[Row Z Royal]

There we go, JMW: you need to telephone Booth.

[Rex]

Except for Tzu being an expert. xxxxx

It covers my remit.

[Norfolk Royal]

I don't know what people are moaning about. If there was a crush at least there would be an ambulance on hand.

[66DD]

Anyone know who I can contact to at the club about the parking of the Ambulance outside gate 7 at final whistle?

They hadn't done it this season until Blackpool and sorry, but it's f*cking dangerous.
It is directly outside the exit and causes a squeeze on the crowd leaving. If ever there was a rush/mass exodus I really think there would be real serious risk of injuries (or worse)

Whoever is responsible for H&S at the club really needs to make the ambulance park a few metres away from the exit

Why was the ambulance outside of gate 7 if the incident was in the North Stand?

[Sun Tzu]

Anyone know who I can contact to at the club about the parking of the Ambulance outside gate 7 at final whistle?

They hadn't done it this season until Blackpool and sorry, but it's f*cking dangerous.
It is directly outside the exit and causes a squeeze on the crowd leaving. If ever there was a rush/mass exodus I really think there would be real serious risk of injuries (or worse)

Whoever is responsible for H&S at the club really needs to make the ambulance park a few metres away from the exit

Why was the ambulance outside of gate 7 if the incident was in the North Stand?

What makes you think the incident was in the North Stand ?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

The abulance only needed to be about 20ft further back from the gate (or about 10ft to the right) and there wouldn't have been a problem.

Didnt know there was any kind of emergency, but there was often an ambulance there when we were in the PL and often used to cause a crowding issue.

[Forbury Lion]

Knowing this was going to cause a conflict of interests in relation to supporters leaving and getting an injured person away safely, surely it would have been easier to open the exit gate and park the ambulance right up to the gates. This would prevent both the issue of having to cause a bottleneck and ensured the injured person was safely place into the ambulance.

They could also get the PA announcer to ask fans to remain at their seats to allow medical staff attending an emergency to exit the stadium.

[Matt de K]

They could also get the PA announcer to ask fans to remain at their seats to allow medical staff attending an emergency to exit the stadium.

Had it been a normal home performance, most of the fans would have left before this emergency. I blame Buck. He has to accountable for the crush

[Gloria Gooner]

Thought I'd add to this one rather than start a new thread - why do the stewards let cars start moving in the carparks at all while there are still pedestrians trying to get across to the buses? There was a car in the 'red permit zone' or whatever it is, driving round apparently deliberately aiming at the back of pedestrians legs on Saturday.

[Dirk Gently]

Thought I'd add to this one rather than start a new thread - why do the stewards let cars start moving in the carparks at all while there are still pedestrians trying to get across to the buses? There was a car in the 'red permit zone' or whatever it is, driving round apparently deliberately aiming at the back of pedestrians legs on Saturday.

I think in reality the stewards can't stop car moving in the car park - the best that can be done in practical terms is to stop them exiting the car park - that can be done with barriers, but how could all vehicle movements in the car parks themselves be stopped?

Short of having a car-park steward standing in front of each car in the car park, I can't see how it could be done - and if they did that the mad panic "I must get to the head of the queue and no-one exists except me in my metal box with 4 wheels" lust that happens when so many motorists get behind the wheel would probably still apply.

[Gloria Gooner]

There was only one car moving and it was driving between pedestrians as if they were traffic cones - I think he could have been spoken to. As indeed he was, eventually.

[TheMaraudingDog]

So in summary...instead of asking a steward Glo asks on here why stewards let cars move just after the game and then reveals it was only one car and the steward actually did go over to said car. Can we move on now?

[Gloria Gooner]

I did ask a steward at the time actually, but thought I would post it on here for comment.

[RoyalBlue]

Thought I'd add to this one rather than start a new thread - why do the stewards let cars start moving in the carparks at all while there are still pedestrians trying to get across to the buses? There was a car in the 'red permit zone' or whatever it is, driving round apparently deliberately aiming at the back of pedestrians legs on Saturday.

I think in reality the stewards can't stop car moving in the car park - the best that can be done in practical terms is to stop them exiting the car park - that can be done with barriers, but how could all vehicle movements in the car parks themselves be stopped?

Short of having a car-park steward standing in front of each car in the car park, I can't see how it could be done - and if they did that the mad panic "I must get to the head of the queue and no-one exists except me in my metal box with 4 wheels" lust that happens when so many motorists get behind the wheel would probably still apply.

They could control the conduct of the car driver in exactly the same way they seek to control the behaviour of others who they regard as creating a safety hazard i.e.people who stand during the game. They could ban the driver from using the car park in future and/or getting into games if he/she doesn't comply with requests to stop.