What year and where did the disaster happen?
15th April 1989
Hillsborough football stadium home of sheffield wednesday
What game was being played?
Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest semi final of the association cup
How many people died and how many were injured?
96 death and 400 were taken to hospital
How long had the game been playing when it was realised spectators were being crushed?
6 mins before it was realised spectators behind the Liverpool goal were being crushed
What caused confusion for fans in regards to tickets and turnstiles?
The turnstiles were labelled confusingly e.g they were ‘acd’ meaning many fans were confused and went to the
What happened in 1981?
‘it had all happened before’
What was the issue with travelling to the ground and leppings lane?
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
What was wrong with the allocated spaces for Liverpool and Nottingham fans?
Police has allocated the liverpool fans 24,256 spaces and 29,800 for Nottingham despite the substantially higher attendance from Lpool fans
What was wrong with the tickets and signage?
- 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
What was an issue with the police radio systems?
- 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
What began to happen at 2:50 pm?
- 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
What happened when Superintedent marshall tried to radio for reinforcements at Leppings lane?
The radio communication at the stage had bee lost for about 3 mins - did eventually get the message across through a police van
After seeing the badly shaken fans at leppings lane entrance what happened?
From the loudspeaker an attempt was made to get kick off post poned but this was rejected
What did superintendent marshal later radio?
- 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
What was wrong with opening these gates?
- 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
What did police initially think had happened?
- an attempt at a pitch invasion - they had been taught they would be hooligans
Due to the narrow gates what did the police find?
- found it hard to go in and help, many stood around not knowing what to do
How many stretchers were available at the ground?
only 6 - had to improvise
What was the police intendants primary concern?
- Public order, instead of contacting the emergency services more police were requested
How was there poor public information?
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
What was wrong with the way the emergency services was dealt with?
- 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
What time were ambulances finally requested?
- Intially control only put the ambulances on standby and it wasn’t until 3:07 that they were requested and arrived at 3:13
What happened at the 1981 semi final?
’ 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
What did the police recommend after the 1981 issue?
the recommend that 10,100 was too large for the max capacity but the club seemingly ignored this advice
