Example hazard table

ID no.	Hazard detail	Likelihood score	Impact score	Risk value
A	Tent collapse on child	1	8	8
B	Pedestrian trip on litter	1	1	1
C	Car rally	5	16	80

What to consider in a risk assessment

When assessing the risks to safety for a given event at a given venue both physical and behavioural factors need to be considered. Some of the more important considerations are described below.

Site/ground plan

The basic design of the event ground or arena is a significant factor, which must be considered in conjunction with the type and content of the proposed event. A school fair should be small and quiet, but a major horseracing event could have the potential for a disaster. Imagine people arriving in a trickle through the morning and being distributed through bars, restaurants and seating areas in the stands. Then in the first big race, the favourite horse spectacularly throws the jockey in front of the stands It is likely that everyone at the meeting will decide to run to the front of the stands to see what is happening. The markings, warning notices, type, style and design of things such as handrails, steps, doors and ramps could, at that instant, be the difference between everybody seeing the fallen jockey, or hundreds being hospitalised and some being killed in the stampede. In those circumstances it would be easy for somebody at the front to trip and their fall could cause a crush that trapped dozens of people in a heap on concrete steps, killing some of them!

At fixed sites, you may not be able to change the design or layout of the grounds to improve safety, but you should always consider the site in view of your event and how you propose to use the site. You should at least consider what improvement could or should be made if it is possible.

Remember that a fixed venue is often designed with a specific use in mind. A racecourse grandstand is designed to allow people to safely watch horse racing. If the owners allow you to rent their site and part of your event is a precision free fall parachute display, will that generate new risks? Could spectators fall over low walls while looking up at the parachutists? Could the parachutists drift on to spiked railings around the perimeter? Always view the venue with your specific event, audience and attractions in mind.

Are they lost or do they know better?

Generally, if the public know their way around a venue, they will be more comfortable, more confident, happier and safer. They will know where the exits, ramps and stairs are. At the same event, a stranger will be lost and they will have to follow the crowd, or aim for different signposted facilities. Unfamiliarity with the venue makes it that much less safe for the stranger.

On the other hand, it has been seen that familiarity breeds contempt in respect of warnings and directions. In some disasters, even though the ‘known’ exit route was filled with smoke or otherwise appeared to be dangerous, ordinary people preferred to attempt to use the route they knew would take them to the exits, rather than trust a sign or member of staff directing them another way.

Apply the same degree of’unreasonable’ behaviour to simple events and you can see that just erecting a large sign saying ‘Danger! Do Not Enter – Model Aircraft Take Off and Landing Zone’ will probably be ignored. You have to erect barriers to force people to comply and you may even have to man or check the barriers regularly to make sure that they have not been moved and that the public don’t ignore the barriers and climb over.

At the same time you must remember to design the site with the visitor in mind. Don’t expect the visitors to make a lengthy and unnecessary detour around a fenced-off ‘dangerous arena’ to reach the toilets. Plan the site so that any ‘dangerous arena’ is on the edge or corner of the site, or that there are toilets available on both sides of the danger area and therefore it doesn’t have to be crossed by anyone!

Information invites compliance

Most people mildly or strongly object to being ‘told’ to do something. However, if you take the time to explain to the same people what the circumstances are and then ask them to comply with a clearly sensible request, they are likely to comply without question.

Clearly in an emergency you don’t have time for lengthy explanations. You wouldn’t point out the smoke and flames, explain that the tent next door is on fire and then politely ask the public if they wouldn’t mind leaving the tent now. However, supplying enough information to trigger sensible compliance is usually worthwhile. Generally as a rule of thumb ‘inform and request’ is better than dictatorial and unexplained orders.

Signs and announcements are key factors in getting people to move around an event or show safely. A lack of information will probably be the cause of disobedience, for example where a site is being evacuated, failing to say ‘everyone will be evacuated to the field on the opposite side of the road’ may cause parents to try to go against the flow to find their children and ensure that they are safe. Adding to the announcement the fact that ‘everyone’ will be evacuated to the same place will make people happier to comply, because they will meet their loved ones at the evacuation point. Informed compliance will make the process run smoothly.

Which crowd?

Crowds come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes and moods. Knowing what crowd you will have to deal with will be a big help to you and will make it safer for them.

A huge crowd in a car boot sale will mill about, intent on finding a bargain, with random individual movements around the site. A crowd at a cup final will all want to on the terraces at kick-off time, going for a beer and to the toilet at half-time and heading for the coach park after the final whistle. All crowds have different motivations, rythms and dynamics. Understanding them, or at least understanding the crowd ‘type’ that you will attract, will help you to manage them effectively.

Knowing your event, you will research and define their size, sex, age range, social background, travelling plans, arrival and departure times, habits and interests etc. All of which help you to anticipate probable behaviour and make appropriate arrangements for it. Don’t make assumptions about people and circumstances. For example, if you said that Sir Cliff Richard was signing autographs in the high street, a regiment of Marines couldn’t stop my wife getting there at the front of the queue and I guarantee that the queue would be a long one!

What did last year’s crowd do?

Knowing what the crowds did last year at a similar event, will help you enormously in planning how you will manage them this year. You still have to plan, review and risk assess to forecast and plan for your proposed event. Perhaps your event has doubled in size this year, or perhaps Sir Cliff is attending – review all elements of the event and take them into account when risk assessing and planning the crowd control aspect.

Individual versus mob?

People are usually sensible; several people together are often sensible; but a crowd can be a wild animal! Sensible adults will sometimes do what in retrospect is a really stupid thing when they are in a crowd situation. To see their pop idol or movie star, people may try to dodge through several lanes of fast traffic, climb along building ledges, or balance halfway up an electricity pylon. Once one person does it, somebody else will have to climb higher or go further to get an even better view. Thus the crowd/mob mentality may provoke unbelievably risky ventures in normally sensible individuals.

In your risk assessment, remember to look at vantage points and make sure that your control measures prevent the bold or stupid from taking dangerous options for a better view!

Danger points

Some points can be listed as dangerous when large numbers of people are moving across or around an area, as they may be swept along with the flow and, at the same time, be unable to see where they are stepping. For example:

• steep slopes,
• grassy/slippery slopes,
• dead ends, locked gates,
• points where several routes meet and merge,
• uneven ground, floor or steps,
• damaged surfaces, cracked concrete, loose gravel etc.,
• narrow doorways/choke points,
• transition points – e.g. top and bottom of escalators or the ends of moving walkways.

Where these risks are identified, action should be taken to reduce or remove the risk. You should remember that the risks above may be compounded in some circumstances and these circumstances have to be foreseen and risks planned out, for example:

• where the busy and congested flows of people cross over, or conflict,
• where main access paths are obstructed or blocked by people gathered to watch a demonstration or even an accident, anything that will make them stop to watch,
• where the crowd has to cross, mix or merge with animals or vehicular traffic flow,
• where processions, or displays are designed to move through or among the crowd.

Recording accidents

If there is an accident or an incident that could have caused an accident or injury, you should report and record it. An outline accident recording form is included in Chapter 21, ‘First Aid’. You should review the detail in that suggested form and create your own accident recording form and incident/accident risk assessment form. Your duties when responding to an accident or incident are:

• to provide medical assistance to any casualty,
• to prevent any other person suffering injury due to the same cause,
• to obtain details of the casualty,
• to record details of the accident,
• to record details of the circumstances leading up to it,
• to record details of witnesses and obtain short statements,
• to report the incident/accident to the landowner and your insurer,
• to risk assess the area and equipment or anything involved,
• to take remedial action to prevent further incidents or accidents, and
• to record the detail of the new risk assessment and remedial action.

What else to record

You should record anything that relates to health and safety. If you have cause to warn your tent supplier that his staff are not wearing hard hats or using safety harnesses, record it and ask him to make sure his staff are supervised properly and to inspect and approve all work done to date. If you have to ask a contractor to leave the site because their lack of skill, negligence or ‘horseplay’ is putting people at risk, record it. When you brief other supervisors and staff about their health and safety duties and responsibilities, record it and ask them to sign to show that they understand and are capable of complying. If staff or visitors report anything that they consider may be dangerous or could potentially deteriorate and become dangerous, record it and act on it. If there is any incident, record it and record the actions that you took to remove that threat to ensure that there were no other incidents.

Check with the experts

This book is intended as a guide only and cannot contain detailed instructions on all of the skills and detailed knowledge needed to plan, organise, manage and deliver every type of event.

Though I have attempted to give some guidance on health and safety matters, the local authority, police, fire service and health and safety executive should be approached for up-to-date advice on the specific event, site and hazards that you will be dealing with.

Remember the complications, as you may be ‘employing’ staff to run the event, you may have to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other associated Acts and Regulations. You must check and confirm your obligation to your ‘employees’.

Keep in mind that Health and Safety is an important and complex issue and you should take appropriate advice to ensure that your event is safe and successful.

Iterative process

You will now understand how important risk assessments are to the delivery of a safe event and hopefully will have realised that more than any other task you will undertake in planning and delivering your event, the risk assessments will need to be revisited.

As circumstances change you will have to reassess the risks of various elements of your event. For example the tent hire company you had previously selected may have gone into receivership, so you are faced with either a new company or running your event in the open. That change in circumstances means that many of your assessments have to be revisited and assessed under the new conditions and circumstances. In the example we have used above, a risk assessment of the go-cart race confirmed that it was acceptable to keep and issue their fuel at the start-finish line. When they were told that the promoter wanted to start the event with a huge fireworks display, circumstances had changed. It is vital that all risk assessments are reviewed now that that new information is available. Reassessing the risks associated with the fuel storage and issue, we now think that there is a risk that a stray firework spark might ignite the fuel, so some control measures have been suggested. They have asked for the fuel to be stored under shelter and in a secure location.

Have we met our obligation to risk assess the fuel storage and issue? It depends. It seems sensible to store the fuel under cover. However, looking further we find that to meet the requirement to provide covered shelter for the fuel, the promoter has suggested that we store the 5000 litres of high octane fuel in the event manager’s office. He stated that it meets the suggested control measures, being ‘secure’ and ‘under cover’!

Obviously that solves his fuel problem, but just as obviously we now have to reassess the risks associated with the event manager’s office. The new information states that the event manager smokes; 5000 litres of fuel will fill three-quarters of the event manager’s office; there is only one door to the office and that amount of fuel will obstruct the entrance; lastly some of the fuel cans leak a little too! Hopefully, you will agree that the fuel cannot be stored in the event manager’s office, and that alternate storage will be needed for the fuel.

This is a perfect illustration of the need to realise that as you change something to resolve one problem, there may be knock-on effects to other elements of your arrangements. Just as in the example above, the opening fireworks display demanded that the fuel be moved, the proposed movement of that fuel to the event manager’s office endangers the occupants of that office and the cashier’s and the first aid office, all of which are clustered together. You must continually check to ensure that a small change to make one thing safer will not invalidate the risk assessment of other elements of the event.

Event health and safety policy document

To make sure that your health and safety aims are fully understood, you should (and may be legally obliged to) draw up a health and safety policy document. In England and Wales if you have five or more ‘employees’, you must provide a written health and safety policy, which details your health and safety procedures. This document should be simply stated, easy to understand, and in plain English.