The UK official National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the SGSA (the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, which regulates the 92 Premier League and English Football League grounds, and Wembley Stadium, pictured) have released joint guidance on vehicle security barriers (VSBs for short) at event venues. The authorities describe vehicle security barriers as an integral part of Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) in the vicinity of event venues.
Besides an overview for ‘risk owners’, the document goes into the technicalities of ‘crowd flow rates, throughput capacity and densities’, flow and density at bollard arrays; and design features of such barriers and how they may affect ‘pedestrian efficiency’ – in plainer English, whether barriers cause people on foot to walk slower to navigate the barrier. That was among the pieces of research gone over at a joint event earlier this month at the University of Greenwich by the Security Institute and the London regional defence and security cluster, and featured in the October edition (‘Researchers go with the flow’) of Professional Security Magazine. For example, ‘flat top’ bollards may be used by drinkers to rest and leave bottles or packets of cigarettes; as the document points out, researchers have noted that ‘objects placed on top of VSBs become dislodged over time and thus increased the risk of slips, trips and falls’, besides causing litter.
Also covered are how to integrate such barriers into security operations; namely stewards and security officers that may staff filter cordons ‘used to slow down and filter pedestrians approaching for the purpose of monitoring them more closely’ and perhaps to carry out ‘soft ticket checks’; and ‘barrier cordons used to segregate, stop or control the crowd’s movement’.
While the findings were gathered from sports venues, the authors state ‘that the principles outlined may also be useful for owners and operators of other types of events and areas with high pedestrian footfall’, photos to illustrate the document include outside Marylebone railway station in central London and the Royal Albert Hall.
For the freely downloadable 38-page document visit the SGSA website or the NPSA website.
