Safety/crush issue

[John Madejski's Wallet]

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

[Whore Jackie]

Ray Booth. He's the stadium manager IIRC.

[Row Z Royal]

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

[Dirk Gently]

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

Agree with all of this.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

I thought the ambulance was attending a medical emergency as I got there they were taking out a stretcher.

[Sun Tzu]

If it was a medical emergency you'd have to allow them a decent parking post, unless you expect them to park up at B&Q and carry the casualty down the slope !

Were there any stewards there to direct people away from the obstruction though ?

[Dirk Gently]

It had the ramp out at the back, just at ankle height.

No stewards seen, and there's no way that a stretcher could get out past the crush that the position of the ambulance was certainly exacerbating, so where it was parked was definitely counter-productive.

[Starry Blue Hooped Wonder]

I think it was the 'ReadiBus' rather than an ambulance outside Gate 7.

I had similar thoughts to JMW as I went out on Saturday as it slowed the crowd exit down and could be a risk if an emergency evacuation was needed. It would be better parked to the right of the exit as you go out rather than directly in front of it.

[premiership_bound]

No it was an ambulance

[Starry Blue Hooped Wonder]

No it was an ambulance

Ah, must have been parked just in front of where the ReadiBus usually parks to pick people up then! My mistake.

[Rex]

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.

[Gordons Cumming]

A lady slipped and injured herself badly in Blue Stand. That's probably why the ambulance was parked where it was on this occasion.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

RL pissed on her birthday!!!!!

[Dirk Gently]

The irony is that because the ambulance had parked so close to the exit doors, the crowd was taking much longer than normal to get out - if the ambulance wasn't so close they propbably could have got the casualty to it much quicker as there would have been less of a crowd blocking the way to it.

[Hugo Boss]

LOL @ a "crush issue" with a crowd of 16k.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

There would not have been such a crush had the safety gate been open.

[Jerry St Clair]

LOL @ a "crush issue" with a crowd of 16k.

1500 people. Serious crush.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/1999 ... rt.comment

[RoyalBlue]

LOL @ a "crush issue" with a crowd of 16k.

I really hope you don't get a job in health and safety!

In a restricted space, serious crush injuries and even death could be caused by hundreds (or even less) let along thousands!

[STAR Voice]

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.

[Magnus]

Let's hope they're not learnt the hard way.