Page:Hillsborough Taylor Interim Report Cm765.pdf/41

 '''CHAPTER 10 THE BUILD-UP AT THE TURNSTILES'''

The decision to open gate C, and subsequently gates A and B too, was forced on to the police by the crowd conditions which developed outside the turnstiles. The crush was so severe that injuries were being suffered and deaths were feared unless the pressure could be swiftly relieved. Why the crowd pressure had built to such intensity was one of the principal issues during the hearing. The suggested causes must be considered in turn.

The Physical Layout

I have already described and illustrated the approach to the turnstiles (Appendices 1 and 2). At Penistone Road and at many other grounds, turnstiles are in a straight line, adequately spaced and with a sufficient waiting area for queues to form. Not so at Leppings Lane. The building line, the bridge over the Don and the bend in the road, left a wedge-shaped approach to perimeter gates set in an arc, and across a short forecourt, to turnstiles also set in.an arc. The pairs of turnstiles were close together and the forecourt, especially as divided by the metal fence, provided little space for a waiting crowd.

The Number of Turnstiles The decision to fill the whole of the north stand from the Leppings Lane end required the 23 turnstiles there to admit 24,256 spectators. Of those, the seven turnstiles (A to G) serving the terraces had to admit 10,100, ie an average of just under 1,450 through each turnstile. At the Penistone Road end, 29,800 were served by 60 turnstiles, or just under 500 per turnstile.

The Green Guide recognises (paragraph 47) that the rate at which spectators can pass through turnstiles depends on a variety of local circumstances but states "in general based on observation and experience, it is unlikely that the maximum notional rate per turnstile would exceed 750 per hour". Since the semi-final was an all ticket match requiring no cash transactions, the Club considered that a higher rate of about 1,000 per hour per turnstile could be expected. Even at this higher rate, which assumes the turnstiles working at maximum efficiency non-stop, it would have taken nearly 1 ft hours to admit all those with terrace tickets. At 750 per hour, it would have taken nearly two hours.

The Green Guide provides (paragraph 44):- ""Turnstiles should be of such numbers as to admit spectators at a rate whereby no unduly large crowds are kept waiting for admission..."."

The Officer Working Party had discussed in 1985 the need, and Dr Eastwood's various schemes, for improvement of the turnstile arrangements. The mathematics are elementary. Both the police and the Club should have realised that the Leppings Lane turnstiles and the waiting area outside them would be under strain to admit all the Liverpool supporters in time. Success depended on the spectators arriving at a steady rate from an early hour and upon the maximum turnstile rate being maintained. In fact neither of these requirements, which are inter-linked, was fulfilled. That they might not be so was in my view foreseeable.

The "Late" arrival of Liverpool Fans

Between 2.30 pm and 2.40 pm the crowd waiting for the turnstiles swelled to over 5,000 and became unmanageable. The case made for the police was that large numbers of Liverpool supporters arrived late; a high proportion of them were drunk and unco-operative; a high proportion had no tickets; all of them were hell-bent on getting in on time. They say this was unforeseeable and explains why they lost control.

Whether those who arrived between 2.30 pm and 2.40 pm were "late" was much debated. The ticket simply requested its holder "to take up [his] position 15 minutes before kick-off. That may have been intended to persuade those with stand tickets to take their seats, but it would not be unreasonable for a standing spectator to arrive at the turnstiles between 2.30 pm and 2.40 pm. Whether they were "late" or not, however, there was certainly a large concentration of Liverpool fans arriving at about 2.30 pm and after.

Traffic Delays

It is unlikely that traffic conditions had any significant effect on this. True, there were delays on the Liverpool traffic routes. There were roadworks on the M62 which was the recommended route. At various points the carriageway was reduced from four lanes or three lanes to two, but no serious delays were reported. Rh