THE tragic death of the display pilot at the Car Fest North event at Oulton Park on Saturday is a most pointed reminder of risk.

Aside from the difficulty of dealing with the crash site and human elements of the accident the organisers had to then consider whether to continue or not with the event.

The logistics of dealing with more than 50,000 attendees in cancellation would have been severely challenging.

It must have been a very difficult decision to continue without appearing to be insensitive to the pilot’s family and friends. All events will of course carry issues of risk, which should be systematically assessed as part of the planning process.

While health and safety is a major concern issues such as illness of performers, equipment failure, access blockages, under-subscription and even the weather must also be managed.

It is essential to have in place robust contingency plans which are well communicated so that they can be put into action if the worst happens.

All organisations face problems and successful events and more broadly successful businesses are those which deal effectively with issues as they arise.

For Car Fest carrying on meant that the income for Children in Need was delivered, unfortunately under very difficult circumstances.

  •  Lawrence Bellamy is associate dean at University of Chester’s Padgate campus and writes a business column.