From Extinction Rebellion Bristol:

Extinction Rebellion Bristol would like to express our sincerest regret that several individuals were seriously impacted on a personal level by our protests yesterday. People were not only inconvenienced by traffic delays but there have been deep emotional consequences. 

We have an open line of communication with the police and collaborated with them on the day to relieve individuals stuck in traffic in personal emergency situations — such as letting through a woman who had gone into labour. Yet some situations didn’t reach us in time to allow us to act. We are deeply sorry for the serious personal and emotional consequences of this. 

We do not want to be here causing disruption to people going about their everyday lives. We are doing so because our government is failing to act on the climate crisis and to protect its citizens. And it is a crisis — that also has very real and immediate human consequences. Worldwide, climate breakdown is already disrupting lives on a devastating scale. Hundreds of thousands of people are being affected by famine, droughts, rising sea levels, flash floods and increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather disasters. We are not exempt from this emergency here in the UK. As the climate and ecological breakdown worsens it is only a matter of time until we see more of these dramatic changes here at home.

In Bristol, a city with a proud history of activism, we are fortunate that most people understand why we are disrupting the status quo. They may not always agree with our methods, but history has proven that peaceful non-violent direct action is the most effective way to create change. We can no longer follow a political system that is leading us towards extinction. 

From Extinction Rebellion UK: 

It is with deep regret that we hear of the serious emotional impact on several individuals caught in traffic resulting from one of our protests in Bristol. We would like to apologise and we will be making a full review of events yesterday to minimise the risk of this being repeated in the future.