Trafalager Square (New Year's Eve Incident) (Hansard, 8 December 1983)

§ Mr. Brittan

The Commissioner has provided a report on the general and specific circumstances of the deaths. I have today had a note summarising that report placed in the Library of the House.

The inquest into the deaths of Mrs. Leary and Miss Smith, which concluded on 2 March, found that each was by misadventure. For a full account of the circumstances, I invite my hon. Friend to refer to the note in the Library. In brief, the two women died in a matter of minutes early on 1 January 1983 in a crush of between 20–30 people who fell on each other in a small area within a large and densely packed crowd at the southern end of Morley's hill which borders Trafalgar square. The crush was most probably precipitated by someone falling over debris on the ground. Police officers, fire officers and members of the public acted immediately to prevent other people falling and to retrieve those who had fallen, and first aid assistance was provided very quickly; in the opinion of the examining patholist, neither woman could have been resuscitated.

The commissioner has conducted a thorough examination of the events, to establish that they have been fully understood and so that any necessary lessons from them will be reflected in the arrangements for the gatherings in and around Trafalgar square this new year's eve and in future. The examination has looked not only at the immediate circumstances of the two deaths but also at the general character of the gatherings in the past. As part of this examination, the commissioner established a working party including senior officers of the Metropolitan police, officials from my Department and that of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Property Servics Agency and representatives of the city of Westminster council, St. John Ambulance, the London ambulance service, London Transport, British Rail, the British transport police and the London fire brigade.

As a result, a number of further measures will be introduced this new year's eve, in addition to the extensive arrangements customarily made by the police and first aid and other emergency services to try to ensure crowd safety and control during the festivities in and around Trafalgar square. These measures will include the following:

(i) there will be publicity to enable people thinking of attending the festivities to be aware of the conditions which they may expect to experience, and to encourage sensible behaviour by those who do take part. This will explain that, whilst the crowds generally are good humoured, there can be a frightening weight of numbers, restricting freedom of movement and reducing visibility to about one metre at points; and that a combination of debris, of bottles and cans, and of greasiness from spilt alcohol, vomit and urine, can make conditions underfoot treacherous. The publicity will also encourage the wearing of appropriate clothing and footwear, and moderation in the consumption of alcohol;
(ii) one or more boards for the electronic, visual display of messages to the crowd by the police will be installed. The level 203 of noise in previous years has made loudspeaker ineffective. The displays will give advice about, for example, the best routes for entry to or exit from the square, or the times of the departures of public transport;
(iii) the principal fountains in Trafalgar square will be boarded up, to prevent people climbing their central structures, and all the fountains will be drained. There is no evidence that the fountains contributed to the two deaths on 1 January. But they have acted as a focal point for the more drunken and foolhardy; and the measure should help to stop people injuring themselves, as they have in the past, for example by stepping bare-footed out of the water on to broken glass, and to stop water slopping on to the ground and adding to its general greasiness;
(iv) the traffic island and associated bollards in the middle of the roadway at the southern end of Morley's hill will be replaced with a device which can be removed when the traffic has stopped on new year's eve. As paragraph 7 of the note in the Library explains, at some time after road traffic stopped, at 10.50 p.m., on 31 December 1982, the southernmost of the bollards on the island was knocked over, and it was near there that the two women died. There is no evidence that the deaths were directly connected with the collapse of the bollard, but it is evident that that left a potential stumbling block;
(v) officers from the London fire brigade will be stationed in police operational control centres, to enhance liaison between the two services. As paragraph 27 of the note in the Library explains, at the time of the crush incident a fire appliance, deployed in response to a dangerously irresponsible hoax call, had been brought to a halt at the southern end of Morley's hill, and, unavoidably, narrowed the room for passage even further;
(vi) with the assistance of London Transport, the British Transport Police and Westminster city council, the subways in Trafalgar square will be available to the Metropolitan police, to facilitate the deployment of their officers;
(vii) there will be certain improvements in the disposition of first aid facilities, including the erection of screens round the first-aid posts on King Charles' island to enhance the privacy of patients, the re-siting of the post from the south-east corner of Trafalgar square, and the provision of telephone links between posts and ambulance control, to reduce radio traffic. These measures do not call in question the adequacy of the first aid arrangements last new year's eve; and I should like to take this opportunity to place on record my appreciation, which many hundreds of people have occasion to share, of the scale and quality of the service and assistance which members of St. John Ambulance have, voluntarily, provided in and around Trafalgar square on previous new year's eves and will, I understand, provide this year; and
(viii) British Rail will run a number of additional services between midnight and 1.45 a.m. on 1 January 1984, to reduce further any sense by those celebrating the new year that they need to hasten their departure from the area of Trafalgar square once midnight has struck.

In addition, the details of the deployment of and liaison between the police and the first-aid and other emergency services will continue to be refined; and the adequacy of the arrangements, both new and customary, will be reviewed early in the new year.