77. August 20 1988

The inquest into the two deaths [of young men] at Donnington
was held at Loughborough Town Hall in February 1989.
After four days of listening to testimonies from more
than thirty people that were involved in the incident,
the verdict reached was accidental death. The coroner
praised the efforts by the pit team by saying “their
efforts undoubtedly saved lives”. It was recommended
that the following recommendations should be taken
to prevent a similar disaster:

• muddy conditions should be made less hazardous.

• a person should be positioned on stage to have overall
control of safety.

• the giant stage should be moved so that it is not at
the front of a slope.

(Taken from Incident At Donnington Monster Of Rock:
A Presentation Paper by Mick Upton, from Easingwold
Seminar, ‘Mass Crowd Events’, Dec 8 1995.
Reproduced online at www.safeconcencerts.com)