Crowd crush: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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A '''crowd crush''' refers to a situation in which a dense [[crowd]] leads to [[compressive asphyxia]] of its members. In some cases, the density of the crowd slowly increases to the point that individuals are pressed against each other too tightly to breathe. In other cases, a [[Fall (accident)|fall]] may propagate through the crowd, leading to individuals asphyxiating under a mass of people; this crush scenario is sometimes called '''crowd collapse'''. Crowd crushes are often conflated with [[stampede]]s, which are uncommon in humans and rarely fatal.<ref name="Benedictus3Oct">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/03/hajj-crush-how-crowd-disasters-happen-and-how-they-can-be-avoided|title=Hajj crush: how crowd disasters happen, and how they can be avoided|work=The Guardian|date=October 3, 2015|access-date=October 4, 2015|first=Leo|last=Benedictus}}</ref>

#REDIRECT [[Stampede#Crushes]]▼

Crushes often occur during religious pilgrimages<ref name="Illiyas">{{cite journal | last1 = Illiyas | first1 = F.T. | last2 = Mani | first2 = S.K. | last3 = Pradeepkumar | first3 = A.P. | last4 = Mohan | first4 = K. | title = Human stampedes during religious festivals: A comparative review of mass gathering emergencies in India | journal = International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction | year = 2013 | volume = 5| pages = 10–18| doi = 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2013.09.003 }}</ref> and large entertainment events, as they tend to involve dense crowds, with people closely surrounded on all sides. Human stampedes and crushes also occur in episodes of panic (e.g. in response to a fire or explosion) as people try to get away.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20151116/local/new-dramatic-video-of-paceville-crush.592399 |title=Updated - Paceville crush: Man arrested for letting off gas spray; heated exchanges in Parliament; dramatic video|newspaper=Times of Malta|date=16 November 2015 |access-date= 8 October 2016}} An incident sparked by gas or pepper spray released inside crowded premises.</ref>

==Terminology and description==

Crushes are very often referred to as stampedes but, unlike true stampedes, they can cause many deaths. Academic experts who study crowd movements and crushing disasters oppose the use of the term "stampede":<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /> "The rhetoric of 'stampede' is often used to imply that the crowd is animalistic or mindless". Most reported "stampedes" are better understood as "progressive crowd collapses":<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /><ref name=Moore24Sept>{{cite news|date=September 24, 2015|access-date=October 4, 2015|work=Newsweek|url=http://europe.newsweek.com/what-caused-hajj-tragedy-333566|title=What Caused the Hajj Tragedy?|first=Jack|last=Moore}}</ref> beginning at densities of about six<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /> or seven<ref name=Seabrook>{{cite news|first=John|last=Seabrook|work=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/07/crush-point|title=Crush Point (discussion and example of crushes)|date=February 7, 2011}}</ref> people per square meter, individuals are pressed so closely against each other they are unable to move as individuals, and shockwaves can travel through a crowd which, at such densities, behaves somewhat like a fluid.<ref name=Seabrook/> If a single person falls, or other people reach down to help, waves of bodies can be involuntarily precipitated forward into the open space.<ref name=Benedictus3Oct/> One such shockwave can create other openings in the crowd nearby, precipitating further crushing.<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /> [[Asphyxia#Compressive asphyxia|Unable to draw breath]], individuals in a crowd can also be crushed while standing.<ref name=Seabrook/> Journalistic misuse of the term "stampede", says Edwin Galea of the [[University of Greenwich]], is the result of "pure ignorance and laziness ... it gives the impression that it was a mindless crowd only caring about themselves, and they were prepared to crush people."<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /> In reality, individuals are directly crushed by others nearby who have no choice, and those who can choose are too distant from the epicenter to be aware of what is happening.<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" />

Among causes of fatal crushes, sometimes described as "crazes", is when a large crowd is trying to get ''toward'' something; typically occurring when members at the back of a large crowd continue pushing forward not knowing that those at the front are being crushed, or because of something that forces them to move.<ref name=Seabrook/>

A common aftermath of a crush with serious consequences is that those responsible for the event where the crush took place, authorities such as government bodies, and [[news media]] blame the crowd and the victims for being out of control and causing the crush,<ref name=Seabrook/> sometimes to the extent of a full [[cover-up]]. Later analysis, sometimes after those actually responsible have retired, may show that the disaster was largely caused (in the moral and legal rather than physical sense) by actions of those planning or in authority of the event, as in the [[Hillsborough disaster]] which killed 96 football spectators; actions by the crowd were blamed until investigations two decades later found manifold errors by those responsible for organising and controlling the football event, with members of the crowd then being regarded as hapless victims.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.southyorks.police.uk/sites/default/files/STUART%20SMITH%20ENQUIRY%20REPORT.pdf |title= Scrutiny of Evidence relating to the Hillsborough football stadium disaster|author=Lord Justice Stuart-Smith|access-date=2012-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619171510/http://www.southyorks.police.uk/sites/default/files/STUART%20SMITH%20ENQUIRY%20REPORT.pdf |archive-date=2013-06-19 |date=February 1998|page=83}}</ref>

==Prevention==

It is believed that most major crowd disasters can be prevented by simple crowd management strategies.<ref name="fruin" /> Human stampedes can be prevented by organization and traffic control, such as barriers. On the other hand, barriers in some cases may funnel the crowd towards an already-packed area, such as in the Hillsborough disaster. Hence barriers can be a solution in preventing or a key factor in causing a crush. One problem is lack of feedback from people being crushed to the crowd pressing behind – feedback can instead be provided by police, organizers, or other observers, particularly raised observers, such as on platforms or horseback, who can survey the crowd and use loudspeakers to communicate and direct a crowd.<ref name="ripley" />

There is risk of a crush when crowd density exceeds about four people per square meter. For a person in a crowd a signal of danger, and a warning to get out of the crowd if possible, is the sensation of being touched on all four sides. A later, more serious, warning is when one feels shock waves travelling through the crowd, due to people at the back pushing forward against people at the front with nowhere to go.<ref name="ripley"/> Keith Still of the Fire Safety Engineering Group, University of Greenwich, said "Be aware of your surroundings. Look ahead. Listen to the crowd noise. If you start finding yourself in a crowd surge, wait for the surge to come, go with it, and move sideways. Keep moving with it and sideways, with it and sideways."<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" />

After the 1883 crush known as the [[Victoria Hall disaster]] which killed 183 children, a law was passed in England which required all public entertainment venues to be equipped with doors that open outwards, for example using [[crash bar]] latches that open when pushed.<ref name="vicdisaster">{{cite web|url=http://www.sunderlandecho.com/daily/Children39s-deaths-that-shocked-the.4183073.jp|title=Children's deaths that shocked the world|work=Sunderland Echo|access-date=13 June 2008|last=Stoner|first=Sarah|date=13 Jun 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621023341/https://www.sunderlandecho.com/daily/Children39s-deaths-that-shocked-the.4183073.jp|archive-date=21 June 2008}}</ref> Crash bars are required by various [[building code]]s.

==Causes of death==

Deaths from human crushes and stampedes are found to be caused primarily by [[compressive asphyxia]]tion; trampling is a lesser killer.<ref name="fruin">[[John J. Fruin|Fruin, John]]. [https://www.workingwithcrowds.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/THE-CAUSES-AND-PREVENTION-OF-CROWD-DISASTERS-by-John-J.-Fruin-Ph.D.-P.E..pdf The Causes and Prevention of Crowd Disasters] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708205729/http://www.crowdsafe.com/FruinCauses.pdf |date=2011-07-08 }}. ''www.crowddynamics.com''. March 1993, revised January 2002.</ref> This is due to ''crowd crush'' or ''crowd collapse''.<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" /><ref name="ripley">{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2209135/|title=How Not To Get Trampled at the Inauguration|last=Ripley|first=Amanda|date=19 Jan 2009|publisher=Slate|access-date=12 May 2009}} Article acknowledges traffic engineer John J. Fruin and G. Keith Still of Crowd Dynamics Ltd.</ref> In a crowd crush, people are subjected to compressive forces by being pushed from all sides (or against a barrier such as a wall) with nowhere to move into. In a progressive crowd collapse one person falls, creating a space in the crowd into which others fall, creating an even larger hole. Those who have fallen are squashed by the weight of many people on top of them (vertical stacking). Compression in either case is often fatal. A crush is typical of a crowd pushed into a confined area; a progressive crowd collapse may occur in a large crowd moving steadily forward along a confined route.<ref name="Benedictus3Oct" />

==Examples of stampedes and crushes==

* 11 February 1823: [[Carnival tragedy of 1823]] where about 110 boys died after falling down a flight of steps to get bread<ref>{{cite book|first=Susanna|last=Hoe|title=Malta: Women, History, Books and Places|date=2015|url=http://www.holobooks.co.uk/MaltaItineraryChapter17.pdf|chapter=Valletta|pages=371–372|archive-date=10 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010130128/http://www.holobooks.co.uk/MaltaItineraryChapter17.pdf|location=[[Oxford]]|publisher=Women's History Press (a division of Holo Books)|oclc=931704918|isbn=9780957215351}}</ref>

* 16 June 1883: [[Victoria Hall disaster]], where 183 children died rushing to get treats behind a narrow door at the end of a downward staircase.

* 18 May 1896: [[Khodynka Tragedy]], where 1,389 people died and over 1300 were injured.

* 24 December 1913: [[Italian Hall disaster]], 73 people died trying to escape from a false fire alarm at a crowded Christmas party.

* 6 June 1941: during a [[Bombing of Chongqing|Japanese bombing]] of [[Chongqing]], [[Republic of China (1912–49)|China]], 1000 people were killed in a stampede at the Jiaochangkou tunnel, an access point to an air raid shelter.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Workers at War: Labor in China's Arsenals, 1937-1953|last = Howard|first = Joshua|publisher = Stanford University Press|year = 2004|isbn = 978-0804748964|pages = 128}}</ref>

* 5 March 1953: [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin#Funeral service|Joseph Stalin funeral stampede]]: In the public's efforts to pay their respects to [[Joseph Stalin]]'s casket, a number of people died as they were crushed and trampled by the amassed crowd.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1954-2/succession-to-stalin/succession-to-stalin-texts/mourners-crushed-at-stalins-funeral|title=Mourners Crushed at Stalin's Funeral|last=Evtushenko|first=Evgenii|website=Seventeen Moments in Soviet History|access-date=5 May 2018}}</ref> [[Nikita Khrushchev]] provided an estimate that 109 people died in the crowd.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator|last=Khlevniuk|first=Oleg|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0300219784}}</ref>

* 2 January 1971: [[1971 Ibrox disaster]]: 66 killed and 200 injured attempting to leave an Old Firm football match. Nearly half the victims were under 20.

* 3 December 1979: [[The Who concert disaster]]: 11 fans suffocated to death in the crush to enter Riverfront Coliseum, in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]]. Thousands of excited fans tried to enter through very few open doors. The resulting crush killed eleven fans and injured many others.

* 15 April 1989: [[Hillsborough disaster]]: 96 people killed and 766 injured as an influx of football fans were crammed into standing terraces in an effort to ease overcrowding outside.

* 2 July 1990: [[1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy]]: 1,426 people killed.

* 14 January 1999: [[1999 Sabarimala stampede]]: 53 people killed.

* 4 February 2006: [[PhilSports Stadium stampede|Wowowee stampede]]: 73 people were killed and about 400 were injured during a stampede outside the [[PhilSports Football and Athletics Stadium|PhilSports Stadium]] in [[Pasig]], [[Philippines]]. About 30,000 people had been gathered outside the stadium waiting to participate in the first anniversary episode of the former television variety show [[Wowowee]].<ref name="bbc_feb4">{{cite news | title =Manila stadium stampede kills 73 | publisher = BBC | date = 4 February 2006 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4680040.stm|access-date=5 Apr 2016}}</ref><ref name = "abc_feb4">{{cite news | title = 73 dead in stampede at Philippine game show | publisher = ABC News (Australia) | date = 4 February 2006 | url = http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1562423.htm|access-date=5 Apr 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820010503/http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1562423.htm|archive-date=20 Aug 2009}}</ref>

* 30 September 2008: [[2008 Jodhpur stampede]]: 224 people killed and 425 injured in Mehrangarh Fort at Jodhpur.

* 24 July 2010: [[Love Parade disaster]]: 21 people killed and more than 500 injured during a stampede on the ramp leading to the [[Love Parade]] in [[Duisburg]].

* 14 January 2011: [[2011 Sabarimala stampede]]: 106 people killed.

* 31 December 2014: [[2014 Shanghai stampede]]: 36 people killed and 47 injured in Shanghai stampede during New Year's celebrations<ref name="Sydney Morning Herald 1st January 2015">{{Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-years-eve-stampede-in-shanghai-kills-dozens-20141231-12gauu.html |title=New Year's Eve stampede in Shanghai kills dozens|last=Levy|first=Megan|work=Sydney Morning Herald |date=1 January 2015|access-date=1 Jan 2015}}</ref>

* 24 September 2015: [[2015 Mina stampede|2015 Hajj stampede]]: At least 2,177 people crushed to death and 934 injured at the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-24/pilgrims-killed-in-crush-at-hajj-pilgrimage-near-mecca/6803178|title=Hajj pilgrimage: At least 700 pilgrims killed, over 850 injured in stampede|date=September 24, 2015|website=ABC News|access-date=25 Sep 2015}}</ref>

* 3 June 2017: [[2017 Turin stampede]]: 2 women killed<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2017/06/16/torino-piazza-san-carlo-dopo-la-morte-di-erika-pioletti-ipotesi-di-reato-e-omicidio-colposo/3663287/|title=Torino, piazza San Carlo – Dopo la morte di Erika Pioletti ipotesi di reato è omicidio colposo|date=June 16, 2017|publisher=Il Fatto Quotidiano|access-date=June 16, 2017}}</ref> and more than 1,500 people were injured when panic erupted during a screening of the [[2017 UEFA Champions League Final|UEFA Champions League Final]] in [[Turin]], [[Italy]].<ref name="BNO1">{{cite news |url=http://bnonews.com/news/index.php/news/id5974 |title=Panic erupts during Champions League viewing in Italy, injuring 1,500 |date=June 3, 2017 |work=[[BNO News]] |access-date=June 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407051009/https://bnonews.com/news/index.php/news/id5974|archive-date=7 Apr 2018}}</ref>

* 29 September 2017: [[2017 Mumbai stampede]], Elphinstone (now Prabhadevi) Station, Mumbai, India: More than 22 people died and hundreds were injured on a narrow footbridge. Reports have said that panic triggered by a falling concrete slab made people rush in fear of the bridge collapsing, leading to the stampede. The bridge was densely packed during rush hour and heavy rains packed more people taking shelter near the bridge.

*7 January 2020: [[Qasem Soleimani funeral Stampede]], Kerman, Iran: 56 people dead and over 200 injured following a stampede during the funeral procession of Iranian military commander [[Qasem Soleimani]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.startribune.com/thousands-prepare-to-bury-iranian-general-killed-by-us/566771112/|title=Iran strikes back at US with missile attack at bases in Iraq|last1=Karimi|first1=Nasser|last2=Vahdat|first2=Amir|last3=Gambrell|first3=Jon|date=8 Jan 2020|website=Star Tribune|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref>

*22 August 2020: [[Los Olivos stampede]], [[Lima|Lima, Peru]], Peru: at least 13 people dead and 6 injured in a stampede resulting from a police raid on an illegal gathering at a nightclub during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Peru]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://rpp.pe/lima/actualidad/los-olivos-al-menos-10-personas-murieron-tras-una-intervencion-policial-en-fiesta-en-una-discoteca-noticia-1288141|title=Los Olivos: Al menos 13 personas murieron tras una intervención policial en fiesta en una discoteca|date=August 22, 2020 |work=[[Grupo RPP]] |access-date=August 25, 2020}}</ref>

*30 April 2021: [[2021 Israel crush]], [[Mount Meron]]: at least 45 dead and 150 injured in a crush during a religious celebration.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/29/world/israel-stampede-intl/index.html|title=Dozens killed in crush at religious event in northern Israel, emergency services say|last1=Tal|first1=Amir|last2=Salman|first2=Abeer|date=30 Apr 2021|website=CNN|access-date=30 Apr 2021}}</ref>

== See also ==

▲~~#REDIRECT~~* [[Stampede~~#Crushes~~]]

* [[List of human stampedes and crushes]]

==References==

[[Category:Hazards]]