Management responsibilities

People are usually sensible. Several people together are often sensible. A crowd, however, can be a wild animal! I accept that something like a primary school sports day will probably not have any trouble, but staff should still read this chapter and investigate further to prevent or counteract crowd-related problems.

There are trained people who have studied crowd dynamics all their working life. All I can do is hope to point out a few things that will illustrate the potential problems you could encounter. Anyone proposing to hold events, especially sporting events, at an existing ground or arena must seek further advice through the stadium/venue owners and management, local authority, fire authority and health and safety executive.

All venues should have processes and procedures in place to monitor crowd levels, crowd status and to institute best practices of health and safety in crowd management. To achieve this, staff members must be trained to continually monitor the crowd status and to take appropriate and timely corrective action when and where necessary.

Their training should enable them to see problems developing, rather than to wait and react to a crisis that erupts in front of them. They should be alert and aware enough to identify and report problem indicators, as well as being proactive in preventing a situation from getting worse.

A busy escalator provides a simple example that everybody can understand. Suppose a man travels down an escalator with a large suitcase and then trips over his case at the bottom of the escalator. Before he can stand up, two people behind him trip over him and his case, and fall on top of him. The escalator efficiently and continually feeds more people into the tangle of fallen people and bags. Higher up on the escalator, people can see what is happening, but there is nothing they can do about it. They will be carried down into the heap of injured people until somebody pushes the escalator emergency stop button. An alert member of staff could press the stop button instantly, z/they were present at the top or bottom of the escalator, if they were alert, if they had been trained in the use of the stop button and if they have been trained to recognise the risk.

At an event site or venue, alert staff and managers could use the equivalent of that emergency stop button, by closing gates, diverting pedestrian flow, announcing delays in the start of games or displays, etc. All of these actions will ease tension, divert the flow of people and overcome mounting problems, and, more importantly, reduce or remove the risk of injury. Once the urgency and reason to push is taken away, the source of fresh people pushing at the back is removed, so the crush of people at a gate, escalator or turnstile can be relieved.

Managing large numbers of people requires good teamwork, good communications and close co-ordination between management, staff and potentially the emergency services. While all appropriate staff should be trained and aware of procedures that have been set out, it is vital that in any situation managers and supervisors must continually promote a positive and pro-active safety culture. The event manager must make sure that staff at all levels are aware of the importance of crowd and individual safety.

To ensure that the visitors and site are managed effectively and safely as event manager you need to know that:

• there is a clear definition of roles and responsibilities (see Chapter 20 ‘Staffing’),
• there has been (and will be annually – or following any incident) a review of the planning and operation of crowd/visitor safety,
• appropriate staff are properly trained, identifiable and properly supervised,
• by research and planning, the event organisers are aware of the size and type of crowd they will attract and so will be able to anticipate crowd behaviour,
• risk assessments are undertaken to allow you to arrange appropriate controls and management,
• they have visited and reviewed the event site and venue as part of the planning process, and revisited shortly before the event to ensure that circumstances have not changed,
• you have set understandable limits that can trigger remedial or emergency action among stewards and management (for example, the risk assessment may state that if the back of the queue at the pedestrian gate reaches die main road, another gate must be opened to relieve the pressure and keep members of the public off the main road), and
• you must check with the local authority and the emergency services to ensure that your risk assessments, plans, management and procedures are acceptable.