Causes Behind Deaths in Public Events: The Case of the Burnden Park Stadium Disaster
Information Description
Assignment Type / Format Case Study in Journal Article format– Analysing fatalities within crowded event spaces
Assignment Weight 70% of Module / Coursework
Assignment Title Analysing fatalities within crowded event spaces - title appropriate for the case study selected
Instructions / Requirements
Description of the assignment:
This assignment has been designed to allow you the opportunity to produce an individual case study in a journal article format (3000 words) which investigates the causes behind fatalities in public events or disasters. The case study should provide an in-depth account of an event and should also pay particular attention to crowd psychology and typologies and how they react within certain environmental parameters.
Guide to structuring your work
As with all written work you should assume a typical Introduction / Main body / Conclusion / recommendations format. With the Essay you should be moving through context’s I.e. Pre-event or past – During the incident – and future [Post event]
Past Context / Pre-Event context
Were there any significant factors or events that have led to or had an impact on the incident? Should lessons have been learnt previously to this event? Build the overview of the event / venue here and discuss in relation to crowd theories or sociological theories related to risk as and where these might be appropriate
During the Event context
The incident itself – exactly what happened? What were the causes? How? What? When? Why? Etc, present evidence of the incident here, witness statements, HSE reports, newspaper / news accounts etc,
also where possible try to link the happenings within the incident to literature on managing crowds, emergency procedures etc...
Future or post Event context
Put yourselves into the role of risk manager and using guidelines available i.e. purple guide to events / FLA guide to sports events, or any textbook material investigate how an incident of this type could have been avoided. Finally investigate what has happened since, i.e. changes in legislation? Criminal proceedings or liabilities? What recommendations you might be able to make based on the event if they have not been suggested.
N.B – With this type of assessment you may wish to carry out primary research, i.e. contacting venues, licensing bodies, the HSE etc. In this case state that you are a student at the University and that the information you receive will not be published, feel free to give my name if any organisation wishes to check this.
Presentation style for coursework:
3000 - Word processed
Font type: Arial or Times
Font size: 12
1.5 line spacing please
Number the page at the bottom right corner
Final article submission: You must submit only an electronic copy via StudyNet
At least 20 different references are required
DO NOT use first person pronouns: ‘I’; We, ‘You’ and so on.
Referencing in main body and producing an accurate list of references are compulsory. Use Harvard referencing.
Cheating, plagiarism, collusion and other academic misconduct will be directed to the Academic Conduct Officer (see UPR AS14 for details).
Late submission: coursework submitted by students up to one week late will be graded at a maximum of 50% for postgraduates. Coursework submitted over one week late will be awarded a zero (0), ie fail grade. (see Appendix C for grading details). This grade penalty will be applied unless there are severe adverse circumstances (see section 11.).
Title page includes the following
Student identification number
Title of article
Module number
Module title
Allocated tutor’s name
Word Count
10% of final written submission mark will be deducted for poor expression in English, incorrect presentation style and inaccurate referencing style.
https://library(dot)herts(dot)ac(dot)uk/
Use this link as resources
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INVESTIGATION OF CAUSES BEHIND DEATHS IN PUBLIC EVENTS: THE CASE OF THE BURNDEN PARK STADIUM DISASTER
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Abstract
The paper analyzes the fatalities caused by one of the sporting activities in The Burnden Park Stadium Disaster by considering pre-event, during the event and post-event. One of the most common sources of deaths during overcrowded events includes hazards and physical risks due to poor crowd management. Safety is noted as an element that sport managers do not adequately focus on. Instead, the focus is on the main event and the significant activities necessary for making each team successful. The sports officers the heath coordinators should play a significant role in determining the sources of crowd risks and offer timely management of the deaths during public events. The Burnden Park disaster is one of the historical events in 1946 at the football stadium leading to the death of innocent fans. The event was critical since it led to the huge number of deaths of approximately 33 Bolton fans. One of the deadly historical stadium deaths occurred due to a lack of effective risk management strategies. Initially, no similar events occurred in the area upon which lesson would be learned. However, crowding in most stadiums was already an alarming factor globally, which the sport managers needed to address before allowing the fans into the stadium. A huge football event such as that in the case was critical, and its management could timely be planned to avoid any possible challenge. Therefore, since Bolton fans were rowdy, the management would have learned from the experience and understood how to manage the situation rather than exposing the team to huge risks and fatalities. The management would have also considered the magnitude of the events whenever any emergent issue arose. In managing the situation, the risk management officers should play an essential role in establishing an elaborative framework necessary for mitigating different risks. Risk managers should also play an essential role in assessing different types of risks necessary for resolving issues. It is also necessary to identify one of the most significant elements necessary for managing different types of risks during public events. Poor crowd management is detrimental since it contributes to fatalities, which should be eliminated by considering effective strategies. Therefore, it is necessary to justify a lot of scenarios would have been prevented in the pitch if the sport management team had effectively utilized crowd management strategies and understood the psychology of the crowd.
Keywords: Crowd management, hypnotic, contagion theory, stampede, public events, and burden park disaster.
Introduction
Fatalities due to overcrowding in public events is a common national and international problem that the government significantly addresses. Crowding is a significant problem that causes such fatalities due to its large magnitude and attendance (James, 2017). The crowding issue results from positive interactions from sporting or entertainment activities. Due to overcrowding, escaping whenever any stampede or disaster occurs becomes impossible (Frey, 2012). Some of the factors that significantly contribute to such fatalities include inadequate resources and other squeezed risk management resources. Sporting activities such as football are one of the most fatalities due to the attraction of huge crowds. For instance, overcrowding is a common element noted in most football stadiums and leads to huge life losses. Most fans who attend sporting activities highly expose themselves to risks and significant problems during disasters due to overcrowding (Gubler et al., 2016). They are heavily exposed to injuries and death due to the crowd's uncontrollable and high-risk behaviors. According to Townsley and Grimshaw (2013), egress and ingress are major causes of fatalities during sporting events. Many fans also pay less attention to the risky behaviors and instead focus on the main event, thus making the deadly activities impossible.
One of the most common sources of deaths during overcrowded events includes hazards and physical risks. Safety is noted as an element that sport managers do not adequately focus on (Kim et al., 2016). Instead, the main focus is the event itself and the significant activities necessary for making each team successful. The sports officers, the heath coordinators, should play a significant role in determining the sources of crowd risks and offer timely management of the deaths during public events (Townsley and Grimshaw, 2013). The risk management officers should also play an essential role in establishing an elaborative framework necessary for mitigating different risks. Risk managers should also play an essential role in assessing different types of risks necessary for resolving issues. It is also necessary to identify one of the most significant elements necessary for managing different types of risks during public events. The organizers should consider pre-evaluation and establish necessary strategies to curb any possible fatalities (Huffman and Bognanno, 2018). Due to the huge number of fans in public events such as sports, it is difficult to understand their psychology and behaviors whenever any risky event occurs. The psychological approach to risk management is essential in public event problems. Psychological stability and understanding of the public event are the major factors that positively contribute to effective risk management (Morley et al., 2018). According to Martin et al. (2018), public events such as sports should be handled with care to reduce any potential elements which are likely to lead to any possible fatalities. The paper probes the fatalities caused by one of the sporting activities in The Burnden Park Stadium Disaster by considering pre-event, during the event, post-event, Crowd management, legislation, the recommendation to the problem. Therefore, since Bolton fans were rowdy, the management would have learned from the experience and understood how to manage the situation rather than exposing the team to huge risks and fatalities. The management would have also considered the magnitude of the events whenever any emergent issue arose.
Pre-event
Initially, no similar events occurred in the area upon which lesson would be learned. However, crowding in most stadiums was already an alarming factor globally, which the sport managers needed to address before allowing the fans into the stadium. A huge football event such as that in the case was critical, and its management could timely be planned to avoid any possible challenge. According to symbolic interactionism theory, people are attracted to unique events which they significantly believe would enhance their interest (Burry, 2016). Therefore, the football match between Stoke City and Bolton was a stimulating effect and determined the fans' level of attraction, leading to more numbers than expected. In this case, the sport manager would have analyzed the events and considered some of the elements that would jeopardize the fans' safety. The management would have analyzed the past events in the stadium to understand the activities which occur when the two teams are playing. Therefore, it is necessary to consider some of the elements necessary for determining the outcome of the events.
The event can be explained in terms of contagion theory. Contagion theory is essential since it determines why individuals conduct activities in groups and events that contribute to group interaction (Nickerson et al., 2017). The theory is essential in this case since it determined why people behaved in the event the way they did. For instance, it shows factors for people to interact and conduct activities together. In this case, the major factor that drove most of the fans together, leading to overcrowding, was that the two teams, including Stoke City and Bolton, had a long-term competition level; it was necessary to identify which team was the best among the two. Based on such ideology, the managers needed to apply the contagion theory and ensure the successful transformation of the stadium. According to contagion theory, understanding crowd behavior is necessary since it determines how they interact during the public event (Bertsch and Ahnert, 2015). Therefore, since Bolton fans were rowdy, the management would have learned from the experience and understood how to manage the situation rather than exposing the team to huge risks and fatalities. The management would have also considered the magnitude of the events whenever any emergent issue arose.
Contagion theory also stresses that crowd behavior is significant since it influences the capacity of the group to behave in a specific manner which is likely to jeopardize the personality of other individuals. It is also necessary to justify that one of the major reasons influencing the crowd's behavior is their inability to embrace the social environment (Nixon and Servitje, 2016). For instance, based on the rowdy nature of the Bolton fans, it would be necessary for the management to evaluate the characteristics of earlier to effectively plan for the effective prevention of similar problems. Furthermore, it is also necessary to correlate the event to contagion theory since it is linked to poorly managed crowd behaviors. It is also necessary to identify the fans' behaviors as hypnotic and was externally influenced by the environment. Therefore, whenever the management could have successfully analyzed the behaviors, many issues would have been prevented and the fatalities limited.
During Event
The Burnden Park disaster is one of the historical events in 1946 at the football stadium leading to the death of innocent fans (Bennett, 2017). The event was critical since it led to a huge number of deaths of approximately 33 Bolton fans (Gillooly et al., 2021). One of the deadly historical stadium deaths occurred due to a lack of effective risk management strategies. The event occurred during Stoke City and Bolton, which was treated as a complex football match due to their football capacities. It was a sixth-round football match and attracted many fans with different interests (Gillooly et al., 2021). Be...