Topic: St Patrick's Day crush - 3 teens dead.

[thejbs]

Three teenagers have died after reports of a crush at a St Patrick's Day party at a hotel in Cookstown, County Tyrone.
A 17-year-old girl and two boys aged 16 and 17 died after the incident outside the Greenvale Hotel on Sunday night.
A number of other teenagers have also been treated in hospital.
The police said a large group of young people had been waiting to get into a disco at about 21:30 GMT. One of the teenagers died at the scene.
"Our preliminary investigations show there was a crush towards the front door of this hotel, and in that crush people seem to have fallen," said Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton.
"There seemed to be a little bit of struggling going on to get people up off the ground and that might explain also why there was a report of some fighting."
He added: "It is heartbreaking that an event which should have been fun for these youngsters on St Patrick's night should end in such a terrible tragedy."
A teenage eye witness, who did not wish to be named, told the Ulster Herald he was waiting outside the hotel when a "stampede" started.
"We were all outside waiting for the gate to open and get in," he told the paper. "Then everyone just started swaying back and forth and pushing from side to side.
"Suddenly there was a rush forward and the whole queue collapsed and everyone fell to the ground."
The teenager said he was pinned to the floor with other people on top of him and unable to move for 20 minutes, adding that there were more than 100 people involved in the queue crush.
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service's Medical Director Dr Nigel Ruddell said: "Everything points towards it being a tragic accident."
"It was clearly a very distressing scene for all those who were caught up in the midst of it," he added.
He thanked ambulance crews who worked through the night despite having dealt with "a very difficult situation".

Absolute nightmare.

Looks like the venue didn't do much by way of crowd control.  I worked at a venue that used to have crowds of 1000 people on paddy's day without incident.

[Barneylfc∗]

Fucking awful tragedy. Sadly, very familiar to what happened at Hillsborough, albeit on a lesser scale.

[thejbs]

Incidentally, the relatively sparce media coverage of this shows how NI is of little regard in Britain. Had it happened in London it would be dominating news.

[Sarge]

Terrible god love them, RIP.

[FlashGordon]

Fuck sake that is horrific. RIP.

[reddebs]

Unbelievable this can happen at an organised event these days [emoji25]

Everything to live for and its taken away in such a scary way.... RIP

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[RobbieRedman]

awful news... r.i.p

[Rush 82]

RIP

Just horrible.

Heart goes out to the families and friends.

[conman]

RIP

[planet-terror]

Horrible
RIP

[Red Beret]

RIP.

[Crosby Nick]

Horrible news. Such a tragic waste, how can something like that happen?

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Incidentally, the relatively sparce media coverage of this shows how NI is of little regard in Britain. Had it happened in London it would be dominating news.

   Front page on the BBC website all day.


Need to hear more about the crowd/queue management.

[thejbs]

   Front page on the BBC website all day.


Need to hear more about the crowd/queue management.

Yup. But not on the Guardian, Mirror (until this evening), Telegraph, Mail, Times, etc sites.

News of David Beckham's speeding ticket, retracing Shackleton's journey to the Antarctic and a London cyclist getting kicked off his bike were more important to various outlets. One shitty tabloid has a story about Maddie McCann on the front page online, but no mention of this.

Here's the Guardian, Times, Indie and Telegraph front pages. I won't post the mail or scum, but they're the same. The mirror has added it to the front page since the victims were named/pictured.



I'm not being flippant here. I've seen it many times before. Most starkly, when a teen or child goes missing in England it's national news. When it happens in NI, it's not.

[Macphisto80]

Can't get my head around how something like this can happen. The only thing I can think of is social media could have had a big part to play in it in how large the crowd was, and how unprepared or unorganised they were in dealing with that.

[BoRed]

Yup. But not on the Guardian, Mirror (until this evening), Telegraph, Mail, Times, etc sites.

I read the Guardian every morning. This news was near the top of their homepage around 9 am this morning.

But the news cycle moves fast these days, since then we've had Utrecht, Bercow, and all other items that are on your screenshot. This story is still near the top of their UK news page.

P.S. I'm not commenting on your general point, just about the coverage of this individual story.

[archie]

Can't get my head around how something like this can happen. The only thing I can think of is social media could have had a big part to play in it in how large the crowd was, and how unprepared or unorganised they were in dealing with that.

It does seem odd.

Cookstown has always been very popular and these venues in the town would be used to large crowds every weekend.

[MBL?]

Sad news. Was surprised to hear that this was before they even opened.

[thejbs]

Can't get my head around how something like this can happen. The only thing I can think of is social media could have had a big part to play in it in how large the crowd was, and how unprepared or unorganised they were in dealing with that.

Paddy's day crowds are always big. I used to DJ at a club in Belfast that would have 2000 people in it on Paddy's day. The queue at doors would be around 1000 strong. They'd have 10 or 15 bouncers on queue duty and cattle gates to keep it from getting too deep. The police would also be driving around keeping an eye on it. 

In the more rural clubs, there wouldn't be that same level of order. Most I've seen would have no supervision of the queues outside beyond the guys standing at the door.

[So… Howard Philips]

Paddy's day crowds are always big. I used to DJ at a club in Belfast that would have 2000 people in it on Paddy's day. The queue at doors would be around 1000 strong. They'd have 10 or 15 bouncers on queue duty and cattle gates to keep it from getting too deep. The police would also be driving around keeping an eye on it. 

In the more rural clubs, there wouldn't be that same level of order. Most I've seen would have no supervision of the queues outside beyond the guys standing at the door.

Looking at the venue it looks just like a small rural hotel, rather than premises used to crowds. I've been in plenty of clubs in Liverpool where a brief fight could cause a bit of a crush but either through good luck or the threatening bouncers there were no injuries.

[thejbs]

I read the Guardian every morning. This news was near the top of their homepage around 9 am this morning.

But the news cycle moves fast these days, since then we've had Utrecht, Bercow, and all other items that are on your screenshot. This story is still near the top of their UK news page.

P.S. I'm not commenting on your general point, just about the coverage of this individual story.

But it was gone from the front page by midday! There was no return to the front page when the victims were named and pictures released - as far as I can see, only the mirror and BBC did that. It's the 7th story in the UK page, behind a man getting kicked off his bike and the miniature brain story.

Nearly 20 years ago, in uni, one of my classmates did a statistical study into this. It showed NI stories were treated with less coverage by national media than equivalent stories from other home nations - obviously, English stories got the most coverage. I remember it well because one of the case studies was of a girl who went missing from my class in school (she/her body never was found).

[thejbs]

Looking at the venue it looks just like a small rural hotel, rather than premises used to crowds. I've been in plenty of clubs in Liverpool where a brief fight could cause a bit of a crush but either through good luck or the threatening bouncers there were no injuries.

It's a proper club venue that had busy events every week so it should be used to busy crowds. Probably packs in a few hundred. I imagine that every Paddy's day is rammed.

[Barneylfc∗]

But it was gone from the front page by midday! There was no return to the front page when the victims were named and pictures released - as far as I can see, only the mirror and BBC did that. It's the 7th story in the UK page, behind a man getting kicked off his bike and the miniature brain story.

Nearly 20 years ago, in uni, one of my classmates did a statistical study into this. It showed NI stories were treated with less coverage by national media than equivalent stories from other home nations - obviously, English stories got the most coverage. I remember it well because one of the case studies was of a girl who went missing from my class in school (she/her body never was found).

Lisa Dorrian was that?

[So… Howard Philips]

It's a proper club venue that had busy events every week so it should be used to busy crowds. Probably packs in a few hundred. I imagine that every Paddy's day is rammed.

Is that the inside of that small hotel ? It's like a TARDIS !

[thejbs]

Lisa Dorrian was that?

No, mate. Although that too is a tragic case. Arlene Arkinson. She went missing in 1994 when she was 15.

[Macphisto80]

Paddy's day crowds are always big. I used to DJ at a club in Belfast that would have 2000 people in it on Paddy's day. The queue at doors would be around 1000 strong. They'd have 10 or 15 bouncers on queue duty and cattle gates to keep it from getting too deep. The police would also be driving around keeping an eye on it. 

In the more rural clubs, there wouldn't be that same level of order. Most I've seen would have no supervision of the queues outside beyond the guys standing at the door.

Which club? I've only been in a handful, and I couldn't imagine one being that packed out. My idea of a nightmare, that.

Looking at this shot of it bunged out, it's absolute madness how anyone could let a place like that reach the point where it could be a danger to life. It looks like there's literally no room to breath in that place, but I imagine that's a fairly common thing.

[Barneylfc∗]

I remember going to Shine in about 2002 or 2003 on Halloween night. Queued for about 3 hours to get in. The queue was self policed and it was extremely uncomfortable. Plenty of times fights near broke out due to people getting crushed and people trying to push their way out of the queue so they could breath. It really was horrendous.

[thejbs]

Which club? I've only been in a handful, and I couldn't imagine one being that packed out. My idea of a nightmare, that.

Looking at this shot of it bunged out, it's absolute madness how anyone could let a place like that reach the point where it could be a danger to life. It looks like there's literally no room to breath in that place, but I imagine that's a fairly common thing.
[/img]

QUBSU. At its peak, we had 4 rooms open, including 1000 people in Mandela Hall.  The queue used to run down the length of Elmwood. And once at capacity they employed a one-out-one-in policy so it stayed bunged until 2am.

In later years Mandela became ticketed in the hope of reducing queues, but the queues for the speakeasy were still massive.

[Stevie_ulster]

It's a proper club venue that had busy events every week so it should be used to busy crowds. Probably packs in a few hundred. I imagine that every Paddy's day is rammed.

Thats sense which is in the glenavon opposite the greenvale hotel

[thejbs]

Thats sense which is in the glenavon opposite the greenvale hotel

You're right, my mistake. I had seen that linked on my fb timeline from people in Tyrone and thought it legit.

The police have said the queue was at least 400 people. Big, for sure, but hard to imagine how it led to this.

[thejbs]

PSNI twitter:

Detectives from PSNI Major Investigation Team investigating the deaths of three teenagers at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown on 17 March have arrested two men aged 52 and 40 earlier today, Tuesday 19 March, on suspicion of corporate manslaughter.

[Macphisto80]

Crush happened outside, apparently.

[Daniel Cabbaggio]

Was going to say aye, sense is the Glenavon hotel.

So so sad haven't been to the greenvale in years, but the craic was for it or the Glenavon was just que up outside and wait untill a group was let in and try not to look tipsy/drunk before you were patted down, God knows wat happened but yeah obviously St Paddys would be busiest day of the year.

Looks like the Hotel owner was De-arrested today for drugs but bailed earlier over the hotel tragedy. Reading the story the cops searched his house, found some Daz in his Laundry room put 2 + 2 and got possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply, bit of an odd turn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47640898

[Barneylfc∗]

Looks like the Hotel owner was De-arrested today for drugs but bailed earlier over the hotel tragedy. Reading the story the cops searched his house, found some Daz in his Laundry room put 2 + 2 and got possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply, bit of an odd turn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47640898

A but fucking mad that. He's in enough shit as it is without accusing him of being a drug dealer.

[an fear dearg]

A but fucking mad that. He's in enough shit as it is without accusing him of being a drug dealer.

A clusterfuck if ever there was one.  The police jumped the gun in the whole thing here to be seen to be 'helping' the nationalist community and have cuased more heartache than help.  I know a few people who are indirectly connected to the deceased,  very dark cloud over the mid-Ulster area at the minute.

[BobOnATank]

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/cookstown-hotel-tragedy-initial-police-16029410

Following their initial assessment they made attempts to establish more detail and information about what was happening and subsequently withdrew to await further police support. When the first ambulance arrived police moved forward in support of them.

Seems like they may of held back. When I was a kid if the RUC (at the time) turned up to a night club area it would have kicked off, it was basically a no-go area for them but to hear the same shit (potentially) happening now is a tragedy - again.