Page:Hillsborough Taylor Interim Report Cm765.pdf/42

 On the M63 there were longer delays due to a contraflow and at its junction with the A560 there was heavy congestion due to volume of traffic. However, the Liverpool routes were clear by 2.20 pm and those witnesses who complained of delays en route had nevertheless managed to be in range of the ground in ample time.

Fine Weather and Drinking

The likeliest explanations for the sparse Liverpool attendance in the ground before 2.30 pm were four-fold - the warm weather, drinking, disinclination to enter the ground early and prolong the standing, and a tendency of Liverpool supporters to cut it fine.

The police emphasised that at the 1988 semi-final there was no comparable build-up of "late" arrivals. They claim, therefore, that they had no reason to foresee it in 1989. However, in 1988, although the weather was fine, it was 11 °F cooler than in 1989. 15 April was the sort of fine spring day which tempted fans to sit or stand about in the sun with a drink. If you had a ticket it would seem more pleasant and sensible to relax in that way than to enter the ground early and stand on the terrace for an extra hour. Pre-match entertainment in the ground had been advertised but did not take place. Even if it had, it may not have been an encouragement to many fans to enter so early.

Was Drunkenness a Major Factor in the Crisis at the Turnstiles?

Of those who arrived at 2.30 pm or after, very many had been drinking at public houses or had brought drink from home or an off-licence. I am satisfied on the evidence, however, that the great majority were not drunk nor even the worse for drink. The police witnesses varied on this. Some described a high proportion as drunk, as "lager-louts" or even as "animals". Others described a generally normal crowd with an unco-operative minority who had drunk too much. In my view some officers, seeking to rationalise their loss of control, overestimated the drunken element in the crowd. There certainly was such an element. There were youngsters influenced by drink and bravado pushing impatiently at the rear of the crowd thereby exacerbating the crush. But the more convincing police witnesses, including especially Detective Superintendent McKay and Chief Inspector Creaser as well as a number of responsible civilian witnesses, were in my view right in describing this element as a minority. Those witnesses attributed the crush to the sheer numbers of fans all anxious to gain entry. There was no criticism of the crowd by any of the witnesses in the period up to 2.30 pm or even 2.35 pm. What happened then was not a sudden deterioration in the mood or sobriety of those assembled there. No doubt those coming behind would have had more to drink and would have included the unruly minority. But the crisis developed because this very large crowd became packed into a confined turnstile area and its very density hampered its passage through the turnstiles.

Superintendent Marshall and other officers criticised the crowd as unco-operative because police exhortations to stop pushing and to ease back were not heeded. How could they be? In that crush most people had no control over their movements at all. Two incidents involving police horses illustrate the point. One horse was found afterwards to have cigarette burns on its rump. Clearly that was the despicable work of a hooligan whether in drink or not. However, there were also eyewitness accounts of a horse being physically lifted off its feet by the crowd. That occurred, as the police accepted, without malice or intent but as an involuntary consequence of crowd pressure which those by the horse's flanks could not resist any more than the horse itself.

Reduced Efficiency of the Turnstiles

The labelling of the turnstiles in the order A, C, B was confusing. A fan with a B ticket who went by mistake to the wrong side of the metal fence would have had the greatest difficulty in getting back and round to the correct side. The colour coding was inefficient because the coloured wooden panels were affixed to the turnstile walls so low that they were not easily visible through a crowd. The information on the ticket printed by Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was misleading and its layout unhelpful, as Mr Mackrell frankly conceded.

The result was that in the early stages, police officers were pestered by fans for help as to where they should go. Later, as the crowd became more dense, fans were presenting their tickets at the wrong turnstiles. There were also Liverpool supporters who had acquired tickets for the Kop end but sought entry at Leppings Lane. They caused delays in the turnstile operation when entry was refused and after a while the police instructed the operators to let them through. There was further delay because the crush made it difficult for fans to get into the turnstile entrances. Once there, the pressure from behind was such as, on occasions, to jam them in the doorway or against the paddle of the turnstile. Finally, there were fans without tickets who sought to enter by offering payment, by seeking to go over or under the paddle or by sliding through with a ticket holder. All of these activities slowed down the turnstile rate which at the worst period was only about 600 per hour per turnstile. The waiting crowd therefore expanded and as the minutes passed frustration grew. Visitors Rh