‘Scary’ cavalcade crush
Monday 10th May 2010, 2:30PM BST.
This was when police opened barriers to let people trapped on the sea side to cross the road – but there was no room there either. (Picture by Zoe Ash, 0966465)
HUNDREDS of people were trapped between barriers and the seafront edge yesterday when Guernsey’s Liberation Day cavalcade entered Town.
Organisers had not anticipated the huge number of people who wanted to move between the piers and North Beach – and there were only four areas where they could cross.
In places, the crush was seven or eight people deep and some were jumping over the seafront railings onto the slipway opposite the Town church to escape the press of people.
Others resorted to climbing the sea-side railings and edging along the marina edge to avoid the crowds.
The incident happened around 3pm and was particularly bad between the Albert Pier and the Ship & Crown.
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Should have got some Germans in to organise it for us ay!
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Why didn’t they just open the road? Isn’t this what they normally do??
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Why oh why when we have had a brilliant Liberation day does the Guernsey Press front page lead with news about a ‘near miss’ crush incident.
A few people might have been scared and distressed but it is not front page news.
Why not celebtrate the Cavalcade or the Muratti win or the Guernsey sings or something jubilant and uplifting.
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I agree with Jill. We had a wonderful liberation day with a huge amount of effort of weeks work undertaken by islanders to provide a magnificent cavalcade and a wonderful Guernsey sings. As usual the Press has to highlight the negative of one incident of a blockage. PLEASE where are the POSITIVE headlines.I shall look forward to your liberation supplement and photos BUT would like to ask the Editor to PLEASE refrain from the DREADFUL headlines not only on this but also whenever someting goes amiss. There are so many positive things to say about Guernsey and we would like them HIGHLIGHTED. Cathy
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I totally agree with Jill. It’s not as though yesterday was a slow news days- there was a lot of GOOD things going on, why does The Guernsey Press need to go in for scaremongering?
I was in a crowd that just stopped moving and was about 10 or 12 people deep by the Liberation Monument, no one was getting upset or angry, all just a part of being in a crowd that was being patient and waiting for the cavalcade to pass.
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Hear hear, Jill. The front page should have been about a lovely family day, with loads of FREE activities for kids, a fun atmosphere with no signs of alcohol related trouble. I remember a similar “crush” last year, by the Albert Pier. It took ages to walk along the marina, but, hey, thats what happens …..
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What a fabulous day, we were opposite the De La Rue pub, there were no people behind us and we saw the whole of the cavalcade most of it twice.
No scary moments and I can understand that being in a crush of people is scary, but the police did react, and that reaction was obviously sucessful.
It doesn’t warrant a front page in our local newspaper.
We enjoyed the day totally, the cavalcade was amazing we had guests with us from the UK and they enjoyed every minute.
There is one downside in my opinion, we parked the car at the top of the Val de Terre and took the Park and ride, the first bus was full, another one came up, parked behind the first bus and everyone at the back of the queue got on, we were not pleased!!
Coming back the bus arrived, a whole bus load waited whilst someone who was obviously well pleased to be in a position of power, he had a walkie-talkie and he kept us waiting for ten minutes in a cold wind, before boarding. Why??
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The GEP is getting as bad as The Sun or the Daily Mail in its reporting. Soon their motto will be If It Bleeds It Leads.
People who didn’t realise that town was going to be packed are fools. As some-one who was down in town throughout the day, it was truly a day of remembrance, celebration and family. Exceptionally well-organised with everyone playing a part. The combination of military vehicles and floats in the cavalcade was great.
It appears that only the Press decided have decided to make such a HUGE issue out of something that occurs at any event where there are 10′s of thousands of people.
Editors, reporters etc should be ashamed that they lead with something so negative.
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chaos strikes when you least expect it.
guernsey prides itself on being a safe place to live so an incident like this must be taken seriously..
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Dear maurizio,
Wow, you must have spotted me!
I was on strike yesterday as it happens (what with the ash cloud, Greece and the hung parliament – I’m very overworked at the moment) and so watched the cavalcade as part of a rare family day out.
Everything seemed pretty safe to me!
Thanks,
Captain Chaos
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As Jill stated, why have negatives been picked up on when Liberation Day was one of the best Guernsey has seen for years. The organisers worked extremely hard for a very long time to make the day a good one. I think people would agree it was fab. Surely something positive should be posted. Yes, negative stories sell but you aren’t a national newspaper and aren’t forced to compete………so why not mention just give it a mention rather then bringing a brilliant day down. No event is ever going to be perfect!
A brilliant day, well done to all involved and the organisers, I think you should be commended!
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My family, 3 young children and wife were in the middle of this crush. it took us over an hour to get from Woolworths to the Ship & Crown. The children were very scared as people were being aggresive using threatening behaviour and trying to barge them out of the way. If I could have moved and found one I would have notified the police to release the barrier, unfortunately they were no where to be seen. It should have been better organised.
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Crushed Family…………..
If the ‘crush’ was that bad and the crowd aggressive why did you not make use of the many steps and side alleys that would have taken you away from it and up the high street?
That would have been the responsible decision for your family surely?
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And this year’s award for the most sensationalist and over the top headline goes to…. Utter rubbish – not a crush just a crowd and very little could have been done to avoid it or change what happened short of closing it down to a 100 people. It took me and my young family an hour to move down the road but then again we were there to see the cavalcade not for a quiet walk along the front! A fantastic day and wonderful event – the organisers should be congratulated.
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@Captain Chaos…unfortunately we were on the harbour side of the road with no where to cross to get to an alley or avoid the crowd. Once we had started walking from the Albert Pier we didnt know there was this hold up. By the time we realised there was no where to go – forwards or backwards. Maybe into the harbour which is where i thought the kids would end up with all the pushing and shoving!
The most responsable decision would have been to keep my family at home!
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We were also in the “crush” and apart from being slightly irritating – there was no problem really; apart from some people who were a little impatient. What I did find strange were the number of people using their buggies with their kids in it as ramrods………..
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Crushed Family and other parents – I appreciate your concerns, having been one of the masses trying to move along the front and from the Albert Pier I could see the problems, one of which was the large number of pushchairs carrying infants who were very frightened at the number of people milling around them, and pushing for access, view point would have been loads of people at calf level and intimidating. Some little ones were quite terified when the barriers were opened and a large number of people were pushing across them, I saw several people literally hawling girl friends, etc, across the front of buggies, which also of course upset the parents. Maybe one of the answers would have been for the parent/pusher to fold up the buggy and carry their child and, in the case of more than one littley, carry, or hold them too, after all, in the interests of a good family day out, it didn’t last that long.
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OK what do you want… a slight crush which didnt even last that long (Yes i was there) or open up the barriers only to let people in front of moving traffic of about 180+ vehicles? I know which i would prefer!
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I thought the Press coverage of the Liberation Day crush was very disappointing. On the whole it was a massive thing to organise, and I thought it all went very well. I certainly had no sense of hysteria in the crowd when waiting to move forwards. Poor show GP.
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It was a family day out – as a parents you expect to be able to to use buggies, prams etc in safety and comfort. The issue was not the buggies but the fact that the barriers had been set too thin next to the lights opposite the Ship Crown, this caused a bottle neck and hence the crush. I know I was caught up in it with my 4 year old daughter. Fortunately she very light and I was able to put her on my shoulders to keep her out of the crowd. Others with 2 or more children didn’t have this option.
The prolblem was in fact very simply sorted when the police using common sense simply moved the barriers about a metre out or so.
This was clearly an oversite by the people who set the barriers up and fortunately was sorted before anyone was hurt. Hopefully organisers will learn from this for future events in town.
Other than that the day was fantistic and agree with everyone above that the Press should focus on the celebration of Liberation day and not the negative but I suppose the headline ‘A Great Family Day Out’ is less sensational than ‘Cavalcade Crush’!
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For anyone that says the crush was not that bad I disagree. We were at the Trident Kiosk at the time, trying to move towards the Normandy markets, and the crowd just stopped and was getting more and more packed. Everyone was getting wound up and being mildly claustrofobic I was trying to move out to the side. All I got was a lot of angry looks and snappy comments basically telling me to stay put cause they weren’t gonne let me through. It got to the point that I got a panic attack and started hyperventilating and my sister literally just had to drag me through. There was no ambulance crew or police around and noone bothered to try and help me. I’ve never had a panic attack before and this was one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through.
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Well written Mike. My wife and young daughter were in the area at the time and your account pretty much mirrors theirs – it was scary and could have been better organised but the police did their job.
Live and learn: event organisers on Guernsey aren’t used to managing large crowds of 20,000+. They’ll learn from this to ensure better measures are taken next time.
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