Hillsborough

Question 1

What year and where did the disaster happen?

Answer 1

15th April 1989

Hillsborough football stadium home of sheffield wednesday

Question 2

What game was being played?

Answer 2

Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest semi final of the association cup

Question 3

How many people died and how many were injured?

Answer 3

96 death and 400 were taken to hospital

Question 4

How long had the game been playing when it was realised spectators were being crushed?

Answer 4

6 mins before it was realised spectators behind the Liverpool goal were being crushed

Question 5

What caused confusion for fans in regards to tickets and turnstiles?

Answer 5

The turnstiles were labelled confusingly e.g they were ‘acd’ meaning many fans were confused and went to the

Question 6

What happened in 1981?

Answer 6

‘it had all happened before’

Question 7

What was the issue with travelling to the ground and leppings lane?

Answer 7

Both rail and road routes to the stadium were such the liverpool fans would approach the ground via leppings lane - as stated by HSE they should have contacted others within the logistics to open more roads etc

Question 8

What was wrong with the allocated spaces for Liverpool and Nottingham fans?

Answer 8

Police has allocated the liverpool fans 24,256 spaces and 29,800 for Nottingham despite the substantially higher attendance from Lpool fans

Question 9

What was wrong with the tickets and signage?

Answer 9

• turnstiles labelled a,c,b,
• Colour coding was placed so low on turnstiles they couldn’t been seen, confusion led to many just heading to leppings lane
• Tickets were labelled wrongly e.g all west terrace fans had a letter ‘B’ on them and above the tunnel was a sign stating ‘standing b’ - led to all spectators who didn’t know the ground to head straight to the 23m long tunnel
• As the theory was for spectators to ‘find their own level’ but due to the positioning of the gates and signs meant the gates were unnoticeable and inaccessible

Question 10

What was an issue with the police radio systems?

Answer 10

• They are known as ‘talk through’ meaning only one person can speak at the same time otherwise whats said is confusing
• Crowds often made listening to them difficult

Question 11

What began to happen at 2:50 pm?

Answer 11

• Pens 4 & 4 in the west terrace were causing discomfort and they had filled beyond acceptable capacity
• Leppings lane crowd had much increased due to the late arrivals of fans who were very determined to get in, many had been drinking

Question 12

What happened when Superintedent marshall tried to radio for reinforcements at Leppings lane?

Answer 12

The radio communication at the stage had bee lost for about 3 mins - did eventually get the message across through a police van

Question 13

After seeing the badly shaken fans at leppings lane entrance what happened?

Answer 13

From the loudspeaker an attempt was made to get kick off post poned but this was rejected

Question 14

What did superintendent marshal later radio?

Answer 14

• He realised the Leppings lane crowd had become unmanageable so radioed for permissions to open the exit gates but he got no answer and repeated it twice more.
• The commander had to take the decision to open the gates

Question 15

What was wrong with opening these gates?

Answer 15

• The club control room or any police officers were told about this and inevitably the most went straight ahead towards the tunnel
• 2:54 players came onto pitch causing a further surge of people
• Fans still be let in when game had begun and when a goal was nearly scored at 3:04 people began to get crushed

Question 16

What did police initially think had happened?

Answer 16

• an attempt at a pitch invasion - they had been taught they would be hooligans

Question 17

Due to the narrow gates what did the police find?

Answer 17

• found it hard to go in and help, many stood around not knowing what to do

Question 18

How many stretchers were available at the ground?

Answer 18

only 6 - had to improvise

Question 19

What was the police intendants primary concern?

Answer 19

• Public order, instead of contacting the emergency services more police were requested

Question 20

How was there poor public information?

Answer 20

At 3:30 many supporters especially nottingham were unaware of what had happened and though liverpool had invaded the pitch causing them to continue shouting and singing - annoyed the Lpool fans more
- Duckinfiled didn’t broadcast the emergency on the public address because he feared hostility from the crowd and interference with emergency services

Question 21

What was wrong with the way the emergency services was dealt with?

Answer 21

• No arrangement for fire officers to be present and they weren’t requested till 3:13 and on arrival had difficulty gaining entrance, by which time the cutting equipment wasn’t needed

Question 22

What time were ambulances finally requested?

Answer 22

• Intially control only put the ambulances on standby and it wasn’t until 3:07 that they were requested and arrived at 3:13

Question 23

What happened at the 1981 semi final?

Answer 23

’ It had all happened before’

• As with the 1989 disaster in 1981 a large number of spectators arrived late a leppings lane, 3 mins in a goal was scored which caused a surge of people forward
• Police inspector opened the gates allowing 250 onto the pitch
• 38 people were treated in hospital

Question 24

What did the police recommend after the 1981 issue?

Answer 24

the recommend that 10,100 was too large for the max capacity but the club seemingly ignored this advice

Question 25

Do they pen capacity of 3&4 support the green guide?

Answer 25

• No, they were only set by a staff member

- Safety certificate was never altered regularly so pen sizes remained the same

Question 26

Was visual monitoring the only method used to judge if an area was full? If so what are the issues with this?

Answer 26

• Yes

- It raises the questions of 1) who should carry it out 2)when is an area ‘full’? 3) fear of holliganism

Question 27

Does the capacity mentioned in the green guide support the amount of people the police regarded as ‘full’?

Answer 27

• No, far more than 54 per 10 metres were present

Question 28

What was the issue with tickets in regards to fans being late?

Answer 28

they weren’t aware they were late as tickets stated to arrive 15 mins before kick off

Question 29

What caused the crush not to be recognised?

Answer 29

Officers on the permitter track weren’t alerted to watch for over crowding during their pre- march briefing.
- Order forbade officers to allow access to the pitch without consent of senior officers

Question 30

What does the green guide say about access to the pitch?

Answer 30

• In normal circumstances access to the pitch must be made difficult but must be available in an emergency

Question 31

What is the main source for this information?

Answer 31

OS&H Journal of 1998.