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the gates to the ground at the Leppings Lane entrance to be opened. The opening of one of the gates, Gate C, resulted in a sudden influx of supporters through the tunnel and into the spectators’ pens 3 and 4, building up an intolerable pressure on the supporters at the front of the pens. This decision to open the gate was found by Lord Justice Taylor to be a negligent "blunder". He also found that the police had thereafter further misjudged the situation by failing to take any steps to divert supporters from pens 3 and 4. He found that, had this been done, they could have prevented the fatal build up of pressure in the pens during the minutes after 2.52pm - which eventually resulted in the supporters being crushed against the perimeter wall and the wire mesh of the fence above it. Lord Justice Taylor also found that the police had made a fatal error in deciding not to postpone the match, once the problems at the turnstiles became clear, and that postponement of the match to enable a slower and more orderly entrance into the ground could also have averted the resulting disaster. Lord Justice Taylor found that the pressure on those at the front had already become intense and life-threatening by 2.59pm, but that the dangerous situation went "unheeded" and "unremedied" by the police. The match kicked-off just before 3pm and shortly after that at
3.04pm a further surge caused by the spectators’ response to a narrow miss at goal by Beardsley for Liverpool further increased the pressure on the supporters crushed against the wall at the front. By then, if not before, many of the supporters had suffered the severe crush injuries from which they died. The exact time of death was not established by Lord Justice Taylor since this was clearly not an essential part of his inquiry’s task. To the front of the crowd, there was delay by the police in opening the perimeter gates in pens 3 and 4 to the track which ran alongside the pitch. These were not open until 3.00pm, and until they were opened the victims of the crush had no means of escaping from the pens during the build-up of pressure between 2.52pm and 2.59pm. It was only after 3.00pm that spectators were able to escape by those gates onto the track and the pitch. The match was not stopped until 3.05pm and it was only then that the gravity of the situation appears to have been appreciated. There was then a delay in evacuating the casualties from pens 3 and 4 and in responding to the magnitude of the disaster. In particular, Lord Justice Taylor made the following findings: (a) Initially no officer took effective charge of the evacuation
Page 1 and 2: M. J. QREQQ, LL.B. J. J. M. HAWTHOR
Page 3 and 4: IN THE MATTER OF THE CORONERS* ACT
Page 5 and 6: Your Memorialists hereby seek your
Page 7: As is recorded in Lord Keith’s Ju
Page 11 and 12: Taylor’s findings, "it was too la
Page 13 and 14: So, despite his reservations about
Page 15 and 16: "There seemed to be a few St. John
Page 17 and 18: Mr. Eccleston Mr. Eccleston is a qu
Page 19 and 20: would have made in saving life. I d
Page 21 and 22: decreased was, when he died, as far
Page 23 and 24: At each of them the evidence of eye
Page 25 and 26: himself up by holding onto Mr. Holl
Page 27 and 28: y a qualified person. The fact that
Page 29 and 30: whether he could have been resuscit
Page 31 and 32: injuries within seconds and irrecov
Page 33 and 34: suitable medical intervention at an
Page 35 and 36: of this evidence had been heard bec
Page 37 and 38: (iii) Moreover it meant that there
Page 39 and 40: who had been admitted to hospital w
Page 41 and 42: in their individual statements. Thi

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