Dundee Dad caught up in Liverpool FC parade incident

The Courier

27-05-2025

A Dundee Dad has relived the moment he witnessed a car being driven towards football supporters in Liverpool.
James Watt, 51, was one of thousands of Liverpool fans celebrating their team's Premier League title triumph in the city on Monday when the incident unfolded.
A 53-year-old man has been arrested after a car collided with fans on the city's Water Street at just after 6pm.
Police confirmed on Tuesday that 65 people had been injured.
James told The Courier: 'This black ford drove down the left side of the road really quickly and I saw the guy driving towards us.
'I noticed him fairly late, but the guy in front of me started to run.
'We both darted over to the left behind a big public bin.
'The guy drove past us, blowing his horn.
'Everyone dived out of the way, then people got really angry and started chasing him down the road.
'But he disappeared fairly quickly and we lost track of what was going on.'
James spent most of the day near the Royal Liver Building on The Strand after travelling to Liverpool for the celebrations.
An open top bus parade made its way down the street in the evening.
Afterwards he started to make his way back to the train station.
James said: 'After the bus passed everyone naturally made their way back up Water Street.
'There were thousands of people and you had to take tiny steps forward all the time
'If the car had come down at the spot five minutes earlier nobody would have stood a chance.'
James and other supporters walked past an ambulance and a queue of cars waiting on the other side of Water Street as crowds started to thin slightly.
It was then the black Ford came careering towards them.
He added: 'As we ran out of the way of the car, I actually got a really good look at the driver and he looked really angry.
'Nobody had interacted with his car and he initiated this.
'The crowd turned pretty quickly and you'll see videos of the crowd attacking the car.
'But they were trying to stop the guy from killing someone.
'This was just a normal guy with a look of absolute rage on his face.'
James has been a Liverpool FC supporter since he was five-years-old.
He had travelled down himself and left his car in Southport, catching a train to Moorfields Station.
James added: 'It was an absolutely amazing day, with a carnival atmosphere.
'But one person has just turned the whole thing into (something) verging on a tragedy.
'It felt like there wasn't a lot of police there and very few barriers.
'There was nothing in place to stop any large vehicle from coming through.
'It does make you think twice about big crowds, but I don't want something like to stop me from going back to another parade.'
James was able to return to Southport after passengers were evacuated onto trains at Moorfields Station.
Phone service was poor in Liverpool.
And it took some time for news of the casualties to filter through to James and his fellow passengers.
He phoned family and friends to let them know he was okay and arrived back in Dundee at 2am on Tuesday.