CrOwd Control
The report on the Bolton Cup-tie disaster of last March, when thirty-three people were killed and hundreds injured, shows that
such disasters could easily be repeated. One of the contributory causes of the accident appeared to have been the delay between the moment when it was realised that safe ground-capacity had been reached and the time when action was taken to close the turnstiles. Out of a number of relevant suggestions advanced in the report, two reformS are particularly necessary: Cr) That the present haphazard method of estimating the real capacity of each ground should be re- placed by a system of scientific calculation ; (2) that at each ground a central control point should be established at which would be indicated mechanically the total admissions at any one moment and from which orders could quickly be passed to close the gates immediately capacity was reached. Both of these measures are so obviously essential for public security that it is surprising that their adoption had been delayed until attention was drawn to their absence by a large-scale public tragedy. Admittedly the establishment of such mechanical equipment would prove a financial burden on some of the less prosperous clubs, as. also would any reduction in the present roughly- estimated capacity figures. But as Mr. Rous, secretary of the Football Association, commented: " . . payment for the greater safety of the public will be willingly made."
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