Introduction
On April 15, 1989, a collapse happened at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. It was a tragic event that claimed the lives of 96 people and injured several, making it the worst football disaster in history (BBC News, 2016). The tragedy was blamed on human negligence in risk identification, analysis, and evaluation. This essay critically analyzes the components of risk assessment failures that led to the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster.
Risk Identification, Analysis, and Evaluation
In disaster management, risk identification spots dangers and raises awareness of them within the organization. The first thing anyone would have noticed was the sellout of tickets, which meant the stadium was going to be full. Supporters were expected to spread out across the pens on their own in search of space, but this was not easy to do because the only way to get between them was through the back gates, which were narrow (BBC News, 2016). Overall, the police and commanding officers failed to identify these risks and act on them before issues escalated.
Risk analysis and evaluation involve determining the likelihood of a negative event occurring and estimating the danger’s extent. For instance, to help alleviate the crowding, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered the opening of exit gate C (Tikkanen, n.d.). The officer did not consider the likelihood of overcrowding at the exit. Failure to analyze and approximate the risk before opening the gate led to a stampede.
Risk Identification Technique(s) and Analysis Factors
The assumption analysis technique of risk identification can recognize and prevent all the risks from occurring in the future. Accurate assumption depends on presuppositions, “what we accept without proof but believe to be true”; and axioms, “what is self-evidently true and doesn’t require proof” (King, 2016, para. 8). For instance, the football fans were rowdy and violent. The police would have assumed the possibility of a violent fan rivalry and taken various measures.
The risk analysis factors are crucial for organizations in designing risk management methodology. The main factors that can help manage a future crisis include technical, schedule, and funding (Husin et al., 2018). Technical risk is associated with construction, design, and infrastructure that can affect performance. In the future, stadiums should be built with enough space at the terraces and emergency exits. Schedule entails personnel, facility, and equipment availability to minimize the risk. Future matches should be scheduled at an appropriate time, in a facility with adequate space, equipment, and security personnel. The funding directed to sports should also be increased to ensure that appropriate structure is implemented with recent technology to detect risks.
Conclusion
Risk identification is the first crucial step in risk management. Failure to identify any individual threat means that no further management steps will be taken. The Hillsborough tragedy was directly related to the police’s negligence and inability to identify risk. The mismanagement included removing an experienced officer and putting the police match commander’s responsibility in the hands of David Duckenfield. David was inexperienced and untried at this level of service.
References
BBC News. (2016). How the Hillsborough disaster unfolded. Web.
Husin, S., Abdullah, A., Riza, M., & Afifuddin, M. (2018). Risk assessment of resources factor in affecting project time. Advances in Civil Engineering, 2018, 1-9. Web.
King, S. (2016). Assumptions analysis. Projectmanagement.com. Web.
Tikkanen, A. (n.d.). Hillsborough disaster. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.