Emotional interview as Liverpool fan Gareth looks back on harrowing incident at title parade

There was an emotional interview on The Overlap this week as Liverpool fan Gareth looks back on the harrowing incident at the title parade.

Jamie Carragher spoke with Gareth on the club’s parade, from the amazing celebrations to the shocking scenes that unfolded later that day in the city centre.

Both Gareth and Jamie praised the bravery and swift response of everyone involved. Have a watch of the interview below or read on…

Carragher: I’m sure you are aware of the tragic events that happened in Liverpool around Liverpool’s trophy parade.

“Everybody here at the Overlap just want to send their best wishes to everybody involved and hopefully fingers crossed everybody is okay.

“And Gareth, I want to come to you to start with. You were you were you were at the parade. Just explain the day for you how how it was for you personally.”

Gareth: “Yeah, I mean obviously it was, you know, it’s a day of celebration, a day of joy, and I was fortunate enough to be in a position on a balcony on a roof that was doing some stuff for LFCTV.

“But my son was there as well. He was with his mates. He’s just he’s just coming up to being 17 years old and didn’t want to hang around with his Dad, which is fair enough.

“So yeah, the day unfolds, I would unfold. It was absolutely brilliant. Got a fantastic view of when the when the parade come onto the stand in Liverpool, you know, fireworks going off from the the Liver building. Um it looked fantastic. It sounded fantastic. There was a big rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone. You know, Virgil van Dijk looked like a film star. You could see the cup. It was, you know, it was everything that you wanted it to be apart from the weather at that point.

“And then, you know, when it was sort of time to go then and go and find a pub and have a little drink and see your mates and that kind of thing, um, very quickly it became apparent something was going on because I turned on to Dale Street, which obviously you’ll know is is right by Water Street where the incident happened and um, as we got about a few hundred yards down Dale Street, a lot of police started running on foot past us and screaming at us to get onto pavements because a lot of people were were in the street because huge weight of numbers in the city.

“I mean, I’ve been to a lot of parades over the years and that’s the most I’ve ever seen on the on the the street to Liverpool.

“So, you know, by the time we got to to the pub at the end of Dale Street, people were starting to come in and say there’d been an incident, that something had happened, that something involving a car.

“And obviously immediately you start to to fear the worst. And you know, my first move was to try and get hold of me son because I knew he was round and about, just didn’t know where he was. Couldn’t get hold of him. There was no signal in the city because of the amount of people there. So kept trying, sending messages, ringing home, ringing, you know, his mom, whatever.

“Eventually got a hold of his mum, but she couldn’t get hold of him either. Turned out later on that, you know, he just gone from there to the station and then he was underground, so obviously no signal there. But when he eventually got hold of him, he’d been right there. He’d he’d seen it.

“One of his mates who was at the front of their group spotted the car coming towards them and pushed one of his mates out the way. And my lad says pretty much saved his life cuz he was right in the path of it.

“Then, you know, all of their group obviously all sort of take a step back and he said it was right there. He said he’s seen people go under the car. Seeing the driver get pulled out of the car.

“He’s alright thankfully. You know he knows he knows unfortunately some of the lads who were injured. He knows two lads who broken legs. He knows a another lad who um went underneath the car but is okay. Um he’s also um the brother of me daughter’s best mate. So it’s all incredibly close to home.

“And obviously I was quite shocked to to realise he was that close. and you know, you can’t help thinking what what could have been and it could have been a lot worse. So, very thankful that he’s okay.

“I think collectively as well, we’re all very thankful that the whole thing wasn’t worse. You know, it easily could have been. You know, it’s there for the grace of God thing really with people going underneath the car and somehow being being okay.

“So, yeah, it changed the mood massively. Obviously, I think a lot of people at that point once they knew what had gone on, wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible. That then presented a huge logistical problem and we’ve all seen about, you know, the huge queues at the stations and things like that.

“I mean, I think there’s probably some questions around organisation from what I’ve heard at stations and things like that, but you know, all of this is going to come out, isn’t it? There will be a review.

“You know the fella responsible or who we believe is responsible is with the police where he should be and we’ll find out more about it as time goes on. I’m kind of out of place with it now knowing that me son’s okay, his friends are okay and everyone it looks like will make a recovery, where I kind of think we need to sort of reclaim the day a little bit now.

“So, I put something out myself on me socials yesterday just saying didn’t feel right the day after to sort of share videos and pictures and everything from the parade, but I think from here on in, we should we should remember the joyous bit of the day and not the bit that was spoiled at the end.

“And like I say, you know, it could have been so much worse. So, I that’s going to be what my memories are or what I’m going to try and make them be. You know the good bit the bit where I was well enough because Liverpool had won the league the bit where I could see Virgil van Dijk with the Premier League trophy, it was the bit with people enjoying themselves that’s the bit I want to try and remember rather than what what could have been.

“Thankfully it seems you know his son and his friends in you know who I obviously know they’re very resilient and from what I’ve seen they’re sort of shrugging it off already and they’re just like we’re all right it’s okay don’t worry about us type of Hopefully that is how it unfolds from here on in. But yeah, as I say, could have been a whole lot worse.”

Carragher: “Yeah, it could have been. I was watching on TV and my daughter phone me. She wasn’t there. She just said, ‘I’ve heard something about a car.’ You don’t know if someone’s, you know, sometimes a rumour can start about something and the video started coming through.

“But as you said, Gareth, it could have been a whole lot worse. And as we know the the area so well, the worst thing about Water Street, it’s such a wide street that you know that’s the street that everyone would walk from the parade up because it’s not like a normal I mean it’s almost like four lanes really isn’t it in in terms of a street.

“So it was a a nightmare in terms of the people walking up against as I said it could have been an awful lot worse and but at times like this I think every city comes together don’t they? I mean, have you have you hear about different things of people uh coming together? Obviously, you said your son got mates involved.”

Gareth: “Yeah. There’s a lot of that, wasn’t there? I mean, I’ve heard all kinds of stories and lots of stuff on social media and stuff from friends, etc. that, you know, there a lot of people who, you know, obviously come from far a field, wanted to see it.

“I think the numbers were as high as they were because people knew for a long time we’d won the league.

“Obviously, we won it early, but also it looked likely for a long time as well. I think you add to that that we couldn’t celebrate the previous league title properly and so a lot of people I think decided right this time I’m going to be there this time I’m going to see it and it it was almost felt like a sort of double celebration a little bit and then it’s a bank holiday and all the rest of it so I think a lot of people come in from far a field um and as I say they all wanted to get back out again pretty quickly when what unfolded happened because I think they feared it was you know it could be something else the city did seem to briefly go on lockdown from what I could see and you know there’s lots and lots to police coming into the city cuz maybe they thought it was something else.

“Um, from what I heard, a lot of people couldn’t get home, didn’t, you know, were stranded essentially. Uh, people started to sort of mobilise, give people lifts home, saying to them, I don’t want money for petrol, just, you know, make a donation to the food bank or whatever.

“Um, I read about sort of people with mini bus companies and things like that coming into the city, picking picking people up, taking them to wherever they needed to go, coming back again, doing the same thing. um you know people providing warmth, pubs inviting people in and saying you know use the Wi-Fi so you can contact people and get hold of them and tell them you’re all right.

“So yeah you know as ever Liverpool as a community came came together. The people reacted in the right way. Um anyone who’s from there or around there knows that that’s how what happens that’s how it works and that’s how we are as a group of people. So that bit was no surprise really.”