Bristow's Bench safety

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Expand view Topic review: Bristow's Bench safety

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by robbotufc » 27 Aug 2012, 21:38

Bleedin Hell!!! we are talking about the Bristow Bench here not the Nou Camp :rofl:

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by ferrarilover » 27 Aug 2012, 19:07

chardie wrote: Did it make you feel better insulting our elderly supporters?

Shame on you.
Jesus wept, are you REALLY that devoid of a sense of humour that this is your genuine reaction to a very well judged, humorous post?

Matt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by ferrarilover » 27 Aug 2012, 19:04

portugull wrote:Matt how can you say handrails will make it much slower to evacuate the Bench when you have already admitted you have no reliable way of knowing how long it will take to evacuate in an emergency.
As for capacity I wonder how many times the Bench will be 100% full this season. Argyle, Exeter & Man Utd in the F A Cup.
I don't know how far away Jupiter is, but I know it'll take me longer to get there than it will to get to the my front door. We do now have a way of measuring how long it takes the Bench to empty at the end of a match. I made a point, in brackets to indicate that it was NOT to detract from the point I was making, that we have no reliable way of truly knowing how long it would take in an emergency to empty the stand. As it stands, a nasty little man, who didn't do very well at school, wears a Tesco own brand suit and is consequently employed by some branch or another of the H&S brigade will come to a game at random, wait for the final whistle to go and start a stopwatch. Provided everyone is out within 8 minutes, then he can file his report and never darken our door again (well, until next time). The reason I made the comment that I did is because this is in no way indicative of how long it would take to empty the stand in case of emergency. Tell people there is a bomb under every seat, and see how quickly everyone gets out, that's a proper test.

THIS SEASON - is the key problem with your argument here.

Matt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by Dave » 27 Aug 2012, 16:46

I see no need for handrails either, I have been in the top tier of the big stand at Elland road, jeez that one is about as steep as you can get, plently of young and old in there, no problems getting in or out, no handrails either.

Thing is with Bristows bench as we know its new, also as we know it takes time to get use to something new, we have never had a stand this high up( dont laugh) I say hang on , dont put handrails in for the moment and give it time.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by GazTheGull » 27 Aug 2012, 16:39

robbotufc wrote:Anyone who's having a good moan about how steep the Bristow Bench is ,need to walk up the steps on the top tear to the back of the Millenium stadium Cardiff,i know which one is more knackering to walk up to, also can't remember seeing any handrails either :@
The Olympic stadium also had bloody steep steps!

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by portugull » 27 Aug 2012, 16:22

Matt how can you say handrails will make it much slower to evacuate the Bench when you have already admitted you have no reliable way of knowing how long it will take to evacuate in an emergency.
As for capacity I wonder how many times the Bench will be 100% full this season. Argyle, Exeter & Man Utd in the F A Cup.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by chardie » 27 Aug 2012, 16:15

Alpine Joe wrote:Mid Devon In the interests of health and safety the smokers are forced not to smoke, and those who fancy a drink have their bottle tops removed etc etc. It's a pity that in the name of safety Stewards cannot also insist that those with walking sticks be forced to leave the grandstand after those capable of leaving more quickly. There are lots of things you may wish to do inside Plainmoor but are not allowed to e.g light a fag, take a photo...maybe the right to hold everyone else up should be added to that list.

I know Mid Devon appeals to common sense in wondering why the more infirm don't hang on for a few minutes to let the youngsters go by, but that just isn't going to work. How many times have any of us been stood in the central aisle of a coach unable to get off as the elderly stand in the gangway, fussing around with coats, handbags, luggage in overhead racks etc. Requesting them to stay in their seats for an extra thirty seconds while those ready to get straight off can do so will fall on deaf (literally in some cases) ears, and they won't behave any more sensibly on 'The Bench' than they do at the end of a coach trip.

Therefore, reluctantly, I see no alternative to handrails unless we give stewards the authority to say 'sit down you old fool' to those doddery members of the OAP army who relish causing a human traffic jam.

Hopefully these rails can be incorporated without effecting spectators sightlines when looking to the left or right. Of course an enclosure for the elderly, just as we provide a separate stand for families, and an area for the disabled, might have been another possibility.....but more likely than not we'll end up with rails and be held up just as long as before, the only change being that those causing the congestion can do so in the happy knowledge that they're no longer jeopardizing their own safety :)
Did it make you feel better insulting our elderly supporters?

Shame on you.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by robbotufc » 27 Aug 2012, 15:31

Anyone who's having a good moan about how steep the Bristow Bench is ,need to walk up the steps on the top tear to the back of the Millenium stadium Cardiff,i know which one is more knackering to walk up to, also can't remember seeing any handrails either :@

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by ferrarilover » 27 Aug 2012, 15:19

Hahahaha, I absolutely love the above post and hereby lodge an application that Joe be made Mayor of England, or something.

Matt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by Alpine Joe » 27 Aug 2012, 15:01

Mid Devon
Today I left the bench immediately on full time and an elderly couple both with walking sticks needed assitance from 3 or 4 fans to enable them to safely navigate down those stairs. This took them an absolute age and fans behind me where getting quite frustrated.
In the interests of health and safety the smokers are forced not to smoke, and those who fancy a drink have their bottle tops removed etc etc. It's a pity that in the name of safety Stewards cannot also insist that those with walking sticks be forced to leave the grandstand after those capable of leaving more quickly. There are lots of things you may wish to do inside Plainmoor but are not allowed to e.g light a fag, take a photo...maybe the right to hold everyone else up should be added to that list.

I know Mid Devon appeals to common sense in wondering why the more infirm don't hang on for a few minutes to let the youngsters go by, but that just isn't going to work. How many times have any of us been stood in the central aisle of a coach unable to get off as the elderly stand in the gangway, fussing around with coats, handbags, luggage in overhead racks etc. Requesting them to stay in their seats for an extra thirty seconds while those ready to get straight off can do so will fall on deaf (literally in some cases) ears, and they won't behave any more sensibly on 'The Bench' than they do at the end of a coach trip.

Therefore, reluctantly, I see no alternative to handrails unless we give stewards the authority to say 'sit down you old fool' to those doddery members of the OAP army who relish causing a human traffic jam.

Hopefully these rails can be incorporated without effecting spectators sightlines when looking to the left or right. Of course an enclosure for the elderly, just as we provide a separate stand for families, and an area for the disabled, might have been another possibility.....but more likely than not we'll end up with rails and be held up just as long as before, the only change being that those causing the congestion can do so in the happy knowledge that they're no longer jeopardizing their own safety :)

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by ferrarilover » 27 Aug 2012, 13:18

Handrails make it much slower for the Bench to be emptied of spectators. We have 8 minutes to get everyone out. If we have no handrails and it takes us 8 minutes to evacuate 1750 people, then in order to accommodate handrails, we must reduce the capacity accordingly.

Without actually building it and seeing how long it took to get everything out, we had no reliable way of knowing how long it would take (we still don't, but that's another story, for now, assume we do) to get everyone out.

Matt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by portugull » 27 Aug 2012, 08:45

Matt you imply that had the club incorporated handrails from the outset capacity would have been reduced.
Can you explain for the benefit of fans who are not in the know exactly what you mean. Thanks.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by ferrarilover » 27 Aug 2012, 00:31

Again, no Ben, they didn't consider something as trivial as exits, they let the tea lady design the Bench... 8/

There isn't law (that I am aware of, but then I haven't looked), but there is regulation. That regulation is 8 minutes and when timed, we have not failed. The exit you mentioned was brought up at a recent meeting and there was no answer provided that I recall. However, it has been mentioned before and we were given some old chat, as usual, about the Health and Safety brigade somehow managing to believe that fewer exits are better.

There needn't be a stampede, just everyone, correctly directed, using the most available exit and efficient method of escape. In the case of a genuine emergency, we won't have people stood about, playing with mobile phones, clapping the players off the pitch, chatting, eating chips or drinking tea. We are a club with a large percentage of elderly fans, it will take us a little bit longer and we will have to be a little bit more careful than some other clubs. In just the same way that it takes longer to evacuate an old folks home than it does a primary school.

Be cool people, it's all coming together nicely.

Matt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by bengull » 27 Aug 2012, 00:06

The escape time is already slow due to the lack of exit points. The only exit at full time is the one shared with the family stand, and in the occurrence of both stands being near full you could have 2500 filtering into the same point. As I remember, the rickety old grandstand did have exits through the stand which were blocked off or condemned on health and safety grounds. I wonder whether the club considered a modern equivalent of these exits when building?

In my only exprience of the bench gainst Stoke it took 10 minutes to exit the ground, I am pretty sure there is a law that states in case of fire the ground must be evacuated quicker than that? Bearing in mind the family stand was near enough empty that night I would imagine it to be chaos in the event of a full house. Maybe the club need to think about utilising the exit at the family stand end of the pop, with the option for family standees to exit there too. What is the reason for that exit being closed? Used it all the time back in the day.

Not criticising the club because what we have now is excellent and space age compared to the previous monstrosity, and as a popside it won't ever effect me. It just seems curious, when you look at equivalent modern day stadia, that the stand was built in such a way that it is impossible to vacate without a stampede. These are the sort of teething problems we need to foresee now and nip in the bud before we get caught with our trousers down and someone gets hurt.

Re: Bristow's Bench safety

by Gullscorer » 26 Aug 2012, 23:41

Escape time..?? What on earth will people sitting on the bench potentially be required to escape from..?

Not the football, surely..? =D

Better install escape chutes at the back of the stand... =D

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