It is the last day of the trial this year and it begins with the questioning of yesterday’s witness. Judge Plein has completed his questioning, but the public prosecutor, co-plaintiff, defense and the appraiser have questions for the fireman. For example, whether there were any concerns in the safety working group regarding the access to the site? No, it didn’t exist. Or whether the man who was in charge of the fire service was put under pressure from above? No, the colleague trusted the planning and was sure that the event would go well.
Change of witness
After an hour and a half, the 54-year-old is released and the next witness is called in. He is the head of the Essen branch of a large security company in the Ruhr area and he had negotiated with Lopavent about the use of folders in the Love Parade. No strangers spoke to each other, the company and the Lopavent organization team had already worked together on other events, such as the opening event of the Ruhr 2010 at Zollverein .
“We do not open doors”
The 48-year-old had nothing to do with the actual assignment, the Duisburg branch was supposed to do this, but probably with the contract. On July 5, 2010, there was an on-site visit to the former freight yard site and a subsequent discussion at the Lopavent headquarters in Duisburg, the witness reports. It was clear that his company would never take over the separation systems at the tunnel entrances. His people were fundamentally not trained for such a task, and he also felt that the access regulations – two groups of people flock to one another and then turn at a 90-degree angle onto a ramp that is narrower than the tunnel – were too dangerous expressed.
We all had a busy year
It is this part of the statement that co-plaint and defense bite into. Who said what at which point in time or not, is of immense importance. Of course, because otherwise the wording leaves plenty of room for interpretation and speculation. For example, that the defendants may have been aware of the danger posed by this access regime and still left it at that. Ultimately, however, this cannot be read from the testimony. After just under two hours, this witness is also released and Judge Plein asks: “Is there anything else this year?” That is not the case and so he says goodbye to us for the Christmas break: “Take a little rest, we all had a busy year.”