Improving Accident Rates at Festival

[kipperhughes]

Hi everyone

First of this isn't spam! Wasn't sure where to put this so admin or moderators feel free to move this or delete.

My name is Danny Hughes, I am currently a final year Product Design student at University of Brighton. I am looking into creating a solution to help prevent/reduce accidents at festivals, towards festival goers.

Currently I am in the research phase of my project, this will help me determine the types of accidents that occur at festivals, the most common types of accidents as well as the leading factors that result in these accidents. I have worked at Latitude for past two years installing neon lights around the site and have noticed from my experience that certain areas specially the forest areas are poorly ground lit resulting in a lot of trip accidents. But I want to see what everyone else has experienced.

So this is where you guys come in! As you all seem like veteran festival patrons I would love to work closely with some of you that have experienced injuries at festivals so that we can discus what caused them? What preventative measure could of been put in place to prevent them? etc. Of course I will keep everyone on here up to date with progress of the project and the end product once its finished.

To start off could anyone that is interested in helping me out fill in this survey (link below), there is a section on the survey that will allow me to contact you if you wish to be part of my interviews.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M6GM7D2

Thank you!

Danny

Edited October 24, 2014 by kipperhughes

[LondonTom]

Done on account of it being a bit more thoughtout than "Why do people go to Festivals?"

Not sure what you could come up to help with accidents though but I reckon lighting in some of the less busy areas at festivals is a good start!

That said any injuries I have had, have been self inflicted by my general clumsyness and drinking to much

[grumpyhack]

Well I tried but when I answered 'no' to have you ever had an accident at a festival I was told to go to the end of the survey.

I would have thought that people other than those who have actually had an accident could have contributed thoughts too.

[5co77ie]

I can't think of any I've had in 139 festivals - that's the magical power of scrumpy

Edited October 24, 2014 by 5co77ie

[kipperhughes]

Well I tried but when I answered 'no' to have you ever had an accident at a festival I was told to go to the end of the survey.

I would have thought that people other than those who have actually had an accident could have contributed thoughts too.

The purpose of the survey is to target people who have had accidents as they can speak from first hand experience rather than an on looker seeing the event happen.

But feel free to add your thought to this thread about accidents.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I've nearly had an accident at a festival. I just about held that baby in while queuing for the toilets. I really did think I was going to shit myself at one point. I think this was brought about by too much alcohol and drugs. Ideally I should have done a risk assessment beforehand.

Being a little more serious now - couldn't you email loads of festivals and ask them for the figures and types of accident under the Freedom of Information Act? Just a thought.

[kipperhughes]

I've nearly had an accident at a festival. I just about held that baby in while queuing for the toilets. I really did think I was going to shit myself at one point. I think this was brought about by too much alcohol and drugs. Ideally I should have done a risk assessment beforehand.

Being a little more serious now - couldn't you email loads of festivals and ask them for the figures and types of accident under the Freedom of Information Act? Just a thought.

Trust me sounds easy, but really isn't. Problem is festivals don't like giving that sort of information out as they fear it will make their festival look worse if we knew the true figures etc. Plus every time you email them your just fobbed off and told they too busy to answer or work with you. Also a lot of the accidents that occur at festivals go unreported so any data that is released isn't 100% trueful.

[thetime]

Is this a serious topic? Not quite sure.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Trust me sounds easy, but really isn't. Problem is festivals don't like giving that sort of information out as they fear it will make their festival look worse if we knew the true figures etc. Plus every time you email them your just fobbed off and told they too busy to answer or work with you. Also a lot of the accidents that occur at festivals go unreported so any data that is released isn't 100% trueful.

It shouldn't matter that festivals might want to hide these figures, although I'd question whether this is the case or not. If you want this information I was under the impression that you could get it from the festivals under the Freedom of Information Act. You are not asking for specifics, such as names of people, which are protected, you are asking for general information. Have you actually tried this route?

[atomised]

Freedom of information requests do indeed have to be granted

[eFestivals]

Freedom of information requests do indeed have to be granted

by public bodies, not by private companies.

[t8yman]

Only accident I ever had was due to me being a drunken tit.

[Katster]

To be honest I'm always surprised more people aren't killed or injured at festivals. The states we get in, wandering around fields and woods in the dark!

[grumpyhack]

The purpose of the survey is to target people who have had accidents as they can speak from first hand experience rather than an on looker seeing the event happen.

But feel free to add your thought to this thread about accidents.

One of our group tripped and broke his shoulder at a festival. He was pretty well out of it and we were involved in calling the first aiders and getting him to hospital. Although we didn't see the accident happen we were far more involved in the aftercare than he was.

I would have thought that speaking to organisations like Festival Medical Services could yield useful information on the type and number of accident casualties they have to deal with.

Edited October 27, 2014 by grumpyhack

[kipperhughes]

Is this a serious topic? Not quite sure.

Yes, honestly this is a serious topic. All this information I am gathering is to help with my research report that will in turn help me identify a specific problem that I can address.

It shouldn't matter that festivals might want to hide these figures, although I'd question whether this is the case or not. If you want this information I was under the impression that you could get it from the festivals under the Freedom of Information Act. You are not asking for specifics, such as names of people, which are protected, you are asking for general information. Have you actually tried this route?

Yes, I have tried contacting many different festivals and 3rd party companies. You either get sent on the run around and made to contact various different people which doesn't lead to anything. Or you get told that they don't hold that type of information and don't have time to answer those types of questions. So instead I contacted St Johns Ambulance services as they cover a large number of festivals. Managed to get some data and information however through the various reports and studies Ive read the figures that you get from St Johns Ambulance or Festivals is normally not very reliable as most the accidents go unreported, people either don't go seek medical attention or there is poor recording methods at the medical tents.

One of our group tripped and broke his shoulder at a festival. He was pretty well out of it and we were involved in calling the first aiders and getting him to hospital. Although we didn't see the accident happen we were far more involved in the aftercare than he was.

I would have thought that speaking to organisations like Festival Medical Services could yield useful information on the type and number of accident casualties they have to deal with.

Do you have any more information on the incident, such as was it daytime or nighttime? Any external factors other than being intoxicated that your could see that could of aided in the accident? etc.

[grumpyhack]

He'd had too many ciders and tripped on a not very well lit sloping bit of rough ground in the evening when it was dark. In theory you could have lit the sloping area better but festivals aren't very often on smoothly tarmaced ground. The general view, and my friend's view, was that without the cider he'd probably have been OK.

What was excellent was the support provided by the medics at the festival. They came to the tent that he'd managed to struggle back to. Bandaged him up, arranged for an ambulance and got him to hospital.

As a general observation, festivals do what they can to make the terrain as safe as possible but accidents will happen. The key bit is how they cope with those accidents and in the case the festival got 10 out of 10 and we'd all go back there again.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

All this information I am gathering is to help with my research report that will in turn help me identify a specific problem that I can address.

How will your research report do what you describe? I must be missing something, because I can't think of a single thing that is universally done at festivals that is prejudicial to health and safety. Apart from actually existing in the first place, that is.

[grumpyhack]

Yes, honestly this is a serious topic. All this information I am gathering is to help with my research report that will in turn help me identify a specific problem that I can address.

How about, as a serious suggestion, ways in which festivals can deal most effectively, and at relatively low cost, with the problems caused by rain and mud?

I'll give you an example, the most delightful festival I attended this year was Farmer Phil's Festival at Ratlinghope near Shrewsbury. For most of the year it's a working farm and then for a week it's a festival with about 1,500 people attending.

With such a small fest Farmer Phil can't afford all the costs of decking for roadways around the site in case of bad weather. So a few years ago he bought a job lot of Astroturf from a sports centre that was being revamped.

It rolls up and stores in a barn through the year but then comes out for the fest. It provided the best footing on rough sloping ground that I've seen - and at a budget price.

He's also got a brilliant revolving main stage - so that one band can set up while another is playing. Come changeover the stage revolves and the new band can come on in double quick time. And the revolving stage was constructed from what was left of an old farm rotary milking parlour.

Edited October 28, 2014 by grumpyhack

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

How about, as a serious suggestion, ways in which festivals can deal most effectively, and at relatively low cost, with the problems caused by rain and mud?

I'll give you an example, the most delightful festival I attended this year was Farmer Phil's Festival at Ratlinghope near Shrewsbury. For most of the year it's a working farm and then for a week it's a festival with about 1,500 people attending.

With such a small fest Farmer Phil can't afford all the costs of decking for roadways around the site in case of bad weather. So a few years ago he bought a job lot of Astroturf from a sports centre that was being revamped.

It rolls up and stores in a barn through the year but then comes out for the fest. It provided the best footing on rough sloping ground that I've seen - and at a budget price.

He's also got a brilliant revolving main stage - so that one band can set up while another is playing. Come changeover the stage revolves and the new band can come on in double quick time. And the revolving stage was constructed from what was left of an old farm rotary milking parlour.

I've been told good things about this festival from several sources. I'd like to go but next year's already booked up, so it would have to be after that.

[kipperhughes]

How will your research report do what you describe? I must be missing something, because I can't think of a single thing that is universally done at festivals that is prejudicial to health and safety. Apart from actually existing in the first place, that is.

With all the data I gather for my report wether it be through, interviews, surveys, observations, literature reviews, statistics etc I will be able to discover trends and common incidents that happen to festival patrons. Although they won't be identical cases they will have some similarities in them.

For example: Say my findings showed that majority of accidents that occur at festivals are due to trips/falls which result in a high number of fractures or sprains, I will then look into the common factor that results to patrons having trips/falls and say it turns out to be due to patrons not seeing obstacles in poorly lit festival areas. I would then be able to conclude from my research report that in order to reduce injuries at festivals that low level lighting system would have to implemented which in turn would lead me to design/improve on a low level lighting system.

How about, as a serious suggestion, ways in which festivals can deal most effectively, and at relatively low cost, with the problems caused by rain and mud?

The thing about research report is that I am able to see such a broad amount of problems that happen at festivals I focused in at accidents due to person experiences and saw that there was a solution needed for this. However, through my findings I may discover that the main causes of accidents is down to mud and rain making the ground uneven and dangerous meaning that I would focus my design solution into addressing that area.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

For example: Say my findings showed that majority of accidents that occur at festivals are due to trips/falls which result in a high number of fractures or sprains, I will then look into the common factor that results to patrons having trips/falls and say it turns out to be due to patrons not seeing obstacles in poorly lit festival areas. I would then be able to conclude from my research report that in order to reduce injuries at festivals that low level lighting system would have to implemented which in turn would lead me to design/improve on a low level lighting system.