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A recent tragic event at a concert in Houston brings home the danger of being in a crowd. People want to blame those who were there, but inreality, crowd crush kills people who no longer have control over their situation.
I researched a terrible example of crowd crush at a soccer match in Hillsborough, England where 96 people died and many others were injured as part of one of my books on disasters.
Excerpted from The Green Beret Guide to Seven Great Disasters (III)
Crowd crush can occur when the density of a crowd becomes greater than four people per square meter. At that point physics takes over as it gets progressively more crowded. When the crowd reached six to seven per square meter, people are so tightly packed together that they are no longer individuals. A shockwave can travel through these people like a wave through fluid.
If a single person falls, or more people push into the edge of the crowd, such as those still coming through the tunnel, it precipitates further crushing. People become unable to draw a breath.
It is often referred to as a ‘stampede’ but that is not only inaccurate but also insulting. Stampede implies people caught in it have a choice. They do not. And those on the periphery often have no idea what’s going on.
