Explainer: Here’s why a crowd surge can kill people | National News

New York (AP) — Crowd dies at Houston music festival Added more names Long list Of people crushed at major events.

Tragedy like one Friday night at the Astroland Music Festival has been going on for a long time. In 1979, 11 people died in scramble to attend The Who’s concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the Hillsborough Soccer Stadium in England, people were crushed in 1989, killing nearly 100 people. In 2015, a clash of two crowds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia killed more than 2,400 people, according to Associated Press media reports and official comments.

Risks are rising again as more and more people leave their homes and return to the crowd for months due to a pandemic.

Of course, most major events happen without dying, but experts say they see a common feature in the tragedy. Let’s see how they occur.

How are people dying at these events?

They are often so tightly compressed that they cannot get oxygen. It’s usually not because they are trampled.

When the crowd surges, the force can be strong enough to bend the steel. It can also attack people from two directions. One pushes from the back of the crowd to the front, and the other tries to escape from the front of the crowd. If some people fall and cause pile-up, they may even be under pressure from above. In the middle is the human lung.

What do you like to be swept?

A British study of Hillsborough’s tragedy found that a form of choking was cited as the root cause of the majority of deaths. Another cause is “inhalation of stomach contents”.

More than 50,000 fans were killed on a warm, sunny day as they flowed into the stadium for a soccer match. Investigations revealed that the mesh distorted the face as some of them were stuffed into the tunnel and squeezed into the boundary fence.

“The survivors said they were gradually squeezed, unable to move, and had their heads fixed between their arms and shoulders … panicked and out of breath,” the report said. “They were aware that people were dying and they couldn’t save themselves.”

“My research has targeted disasters for over 100 years, and they all all result in very similar characteristics,” said G. Keith, a visiting professor at Suffolk University in the United Kingdom, who testified as an expert witness in court. Still says. When including a crowd.

The first is the design of the event, including ensuring that the density of the crowd does not exceed the guidelines set by the National Fire Protection Association and others. This includes ensuring enough space for everyone and enough gaps for people to move around.

Some venues take precautions, especially when they learn that high-energy spectators are coming to the event. I still pointed out how to put pens around the stage to divide a large number of people into smaller groups. It can also allow routes for security guards and emergency exits.

Crowd density may be the most important factor in the deadly surge, but it usually requires a catalyst to get everyone to rush in the same direction.

When sudden rain or hail falls, everyone runs for cover, as in 1988 when 93 Nepalese football fans were killed while soaring towards the exit of a locked stadium. There is a possibility. In states than in other countries, someone shouts, “He has a gun!”

Surges do not always occur because people are fleeing from something. Sometimes it’s because the audience moves towards something like a performer on stage before hitting the barrier.

Poor crowd management systems are also cited as one of the reasons for the catastrophic surge, where event organizers do not have strong procedures for reporting warnings and warnings.

How was the pandemic affected?

Steve Allen of CrowdSafety, a UK-based consultancy engaged in major events around the world, said it’s always important to monitor the crowd.

“As soon as we add people to the mix, there is always a risk,” he said of the crowd.

He trains cloud spotters at an event using a noise-cancelling headset that communicates directly with someone near a performer who is willing to suspend the event in the event of a life-threatening situation. It is recommended to do. It could be a crowd surge, a structural collapse, a fire, or something else.

Allen said he had personally canceled about 25 performances by Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem and others.

Why don’t people call this stampede?

Experts do not use the words “stamped” or “panic” to describe such scenarios. This is because it can blame the death of those in the crowd. Instead, they often point out the organizers of the event because they couldn’t provide a safe environment.

“There is no benefit to safety,” he said, “so it tends to be the last of the budget.”

The Associated Press writer David Sharp of Portland, Maine contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 AP communication. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.

Explainer: Here’s why a crowd surge can kill people | National News

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