A Note to the Board

[madgull]

Please invest in radios for all stewards, it took a good five minutes for the on-site paramedics to be alerted and reach the scene of a collapse on the Popside yesterday. It took a fan sprinting along the stand to alert them (a supervisor with a radio only appeared after the medics had been alerted), as the steward near the incident said that he couldn't leave his spot.

Whilst in this instance it appears that no ill effects were suffered, if the casualty had suffered a stroke, wound or other more serious injury then such a delay could be life-threatening. Even cheap short-range radios would be sufficient.

My other concern relates to the preparation and planning (or lack thereof) in contingency for such situations. The stewards near the incident were seemingly paralysed and unsure what to do, as I said it took a fan running to alert the St John's.

Anyway, hopefully this is something that will not be needed, but I feel the meagre financial outlay for radios and a little training would be negligible compared to the liability should something more serious occur.

(Note : this has also been emailed to the club)

[Gullscorer]

This incident shows that stewards are trained not to use their initiative and to regard all spectators as troublemakers rather than decent members of the public for whom a service should be provided. Obviously no exceptions to this policy are allowed, not even potential life-threatening emergencies such as this one. This is a shocking dereliction of their duty of service to the public, and whoever is responsible should be brought to account.

[ferrarilover]

I was right by this and was **** appalled at the inaction of the stewards.

Ordinarily, I don't care to comment on stewards (for the same reason that I don't comment on the police), I have no cause to trouble them. Yesterday was an exception and they were chocolate-teapot useless. Stood with thumb up arse and a gormless expression while, for all they knew, a man's life ebbed away.

I'm going all Outraged of Osgathorpe and writing a strongly worded email to Breedy.

Our stewards are so typically Torquay (the town, not the club); an embarrassing paucity of both IQ points and teeth. I **** hate mongs, and TUFC are daft for relying upon them.

Matt.

[Dave]

You're right to bring this to the attention of the club. I believe the stewards are run independently from the club, however I'm sure the club will take this very seriously, didn't see what had happened as I was few block down the popside, but did see the young lad run down desperately trying to get the attention of the medics, I did hear some fans to the right shout 'medics' followed by 'for f-sake, medics, come on' so I guessed something pretty bad had happened.

From what I could see the reaction not just of the stewards but the medic who responded was so slow, I said to a friend, hope the person hasn't suffered heart attack, they're going have passed away before he gets there, think a snail would have got there quicker. Agree with the above sentiments, in the case of an emergency use your common sense first, when informed that someone in the stands has suffered a possible life changing/threatening medical emergency, act, save the life, de-brief afterwards , no ones getting sacked for leaving their post to deal with a medical emergency, could the steward leave his post if a fight had broken out.

The procedure for responding to such an emergency needs looking at and tightening up on what I saw, every steward needs to be told exactly how to act in the event of this occurring again, so next time no one has to bare witness to such a pathetic response.

[tomogull]

In the 'good old days', the St John's ambulance folk used to be positioned in front of the grandstand. From there, they could see the whole ground and if there was an incident, someone would wave a white handkerchief and they would go racing over. Where they are placed now - in the corner - they can't see what's happening in the busiest part of the ground, the Pop Side and not many people carry white hankies these days ! Certainly yesterday's response time causes concern and it is right that it is brought to the club's attention. Do we know if the stewards have any basic first aid training to initially deal with a potential emergency until help arrives? After all, there's only just over 2000 of us loyal fans so we don't want to lose anyone !!

[brucie]

I am not sure why anyone would expect the stewards to be able to act in this situation. Perhaps someone stood next to this unfortunate person should have started taking pictures of the match on their mobile phone. That would have galvanised them into action.
First aid training? - seriously? I doubt whether the majority of the stewards can spell their own names let alone read a first aid manual.

[Behind-the-Gulls]

The stewards have to do a course which they need to pass before undertaking duties at matches-this includes First-aid.

[madgull]

Just got this reply, glad to know the situation is being acted upon:

Thank you for your email concerning the incident on Saturday, the content of which is duly noted.

After any such incident the Match Day Ground Safety Team conduct a thorough investigation which, includes interviewing the stewards involved and their supervisors and reviewing radio logs and CCTV footage.
The steward in question has apologised remorsefully as he did not realise that a gentleman had collapsed. He did, in fact, call the radio operator at Gate 6 as soon as he realised the problem. He stated that he was unable to see the gentleman on the floor due to the crowd and apologises for his mistake. He alerted his nearest radio operator as soon as he realised the seriousness of the situation. This steward stayed at the scene after the crowd had left to ensure that the gentleman was ok and that the paramedic was directed to the correct location.

As soon as ‘control’ was alerted they requested that St John’s Ambulance be dispatched to the area. St Johns then sent two men to the Popside. Unfortunately, St John’s protocol does not allow their volunteers to run to any situation and there was then a further delay. Regrettably, the club do not have the authority to request that St John’s hasten their volunteers to any emergency. Please do not think I am making excuses for this episode. As you correctly mentioned it took nearly 5 minutes from the time the gentleman collapsed to St John’s arriving on the scene. This isn’t good enough and will be addressed prior to the next game.

The club are currently in negotiations with communications companies regrading expanding their current stock of radios. There is a certain criteria that must be met when purchasing radio’s for sports stadia and unfortunately, cheap short range radios are not the answer.

Once again, I would like to thank you for contacting me and I can assure you that the club will attempt to ensure that this does not happen again.

Kind regards

Rob Stanley
Club Secretary

[Southampton Gull]

I'll contact Rob myself and pass on some information regarding radios used by my security team at events like Let's Rock, Pennfest and Boomtown. The cost of these isn't that great and the range is more than adequate for those large venues so should be fine for a compact sports stadium.