I've done a few other videos covering crowd crushes... including some more recent ones. Here's the video I made a few years back about the Who Concert Crush in Cincinnati in 1979: ua-cam.com/video/PntgiGbnwNg/v-deo.html
You're summary at the end of the video is simply wrong. The crushes at Mecca continue to this day, even after several upgrades to the pilgrimage site. And they kill far more people.
Watching this channel has made me wary of being anywhere where there's an overcrowding of people, especially if it's not an open space (ie. it's inside a building, inside a fenced place, or the like.)
Completely understand, when I was younger I used to go to rock concerts and alcohol was served. Always put your girl in front of you while walking to or away from your seats because guys would take their perverse hand to play grab ass or worse. Bonner Springs Kansas at the used to be called Sandstone amphitheater.
Crushes scare me more than a fire does. With smoke inhalation you pass out pretty quickly, but in a crush, you are stuck there, unable to breathe, twisted among all the other bodies and getting just enough air to prolong your suffering. It sounds absolutely brutal.
I once made my way to the front of the first concert I'd ever been to about 15 years ago (The Warped Tour). I quickly learned what a mistake that was and if it wasn't for a really nice man who helped me make my way out, I have no doubt I wouldn't have made it out. It's soo scary...
Those long dresses must have trapped those women, with all those people on top of them. I always wear shoes that I can break into a run with. No backless or high heels. Nowadays, you have to be careful & be aware of your surroundings. (Parades, movies, marathons, restaurants, shopping, schools have all been crime scenes).
Agree with you. Once got caught in a crush in a tunnel at a rock festival. Wasn't for very long, but never again!! Nothing surpasses that feeling of panic, not being able to move or breathe!
My brother's girlfriend died in the crush at The Who concert at Riverfront Stadium. Since then we're all careful. Too packed? Can't find the exits? Too far from the exit?Our lives aren't worth it.
It really makes you realise how many things that we take for granted are actually to prevent crush situations. Fire drills, for example, get you practiced in leaving calmly. The "beep, beep" tones in a real emergency to tell you to get ready to evacuate, rather than evacuating when you are still surprised by a loud noise. And then there's the architecture, with handrails on stairwells and landings at a regular frequency, and bends in the path to break up the force of crushes. Crowd controllers "officiously" telling people not to stand in walkways. Exit doors with push bars. Secure doors that are electronically triggered to open on an alarm and provide no resistance to evacuation. Wide open foyers with no choke points. It's all designed for safety; we take it for granted, we dont even see it, but it's all there.
People really take the fire drill one for granted. I see too many comments online from people complaining about it and thinking we should be running out, while completely ignoring the purpose of them. They exist to ensure everyone gets out safely. Panic only causes issues. As the saying goes, "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast."
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I was at a school with inner yard surrounded by buildings on all sides. Think a hollow square structure when looking from above. We would go there to play and run around during recess. There was one door to go back to the school building from the yard. One day my class got carried away with games when the bell rang. We rushed back to go to class. Entered through the door and then in a few meters would need to go up a flight of stairs. Someone fell, then the ones behind them fell, and the rest of the kids kept squeezing through the door from the yard. We were maybe 15-20 kids and it only lasted for a minute or two, but I remember myself half lying on top of someone, flailing my arms in front of me and just not being able to move neither forwards nor backwards, kids around shouting. It was a tiny tiny jam in comparison, but I still recall it 25 years later and that flash of fear and helplessness. I can now understand that the entrance design was bad, especially for a school where crowds move at speed at the sound of a bell.
Several years ago there was an accident like that in a Chinese school that led to at least one fatality. Really sad! I'm very cautious on stairs and escalators because I worry about these kind of things.
There's nothing wrong with the designs of your school or the church. Buildings are not designed to accommodate people behaving like frightened sheep. Mass hysteria, or reckless dashing and shoving by impatient or panicking people, cannot be blamed on anything or anyone but the people themselves. When will people realize that a modicum of composure, patience, thoughtfulness, and fortitude will move a crowd from danger far more quickly and safely than hysteria.
@@theresedavis2526 Do you also tell people with mental illnesses to "just get over it"? That's what you're doing now, expecting people who already out of their mind to suddenly regain composure when the circumstances are explicitly encouraging the opposite via instinct.
Uuugggghhh all of these disasters are awful but crushes are so so disturbing to me. A writhing stuck mass of panicked humans is just a horrifying and heartbreaking thought 💔
Over the years I have seen several news stories about crushes. It does not make sense when I see the people all over each other and I think, "Just get up!" Obviously, it does not work that way!
I'v read the story of the Great White concert in Rhode Island. There was a mass of people trying to get out of the door and became trapped, piled up on each other. Half in, half out, but the rescuers couldn't get them freed. They all died.
@@su-rv2uq makes it even worse considering the fire and the fact that some would have been burning alive too, unable to move or do anything but scream...
@@su-rv2uq I think footage of Great White was where I realized one cannot simply get up or in that case, get out (if I recall, many were standing up and could not make it out of the door due to being trapped).
Actually, "fun" fact for the day: It is not by itself illegal in the United States to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater. No, really, it isn't. It has never been the law of the land in the US. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion in _Schenck v. United States_ held it as an example of the limits of free speech, but it's never been settled law, and that case was overturned 50 years later in 1969, as part of _Brandenburg v. Ohio._ You _can_ hypothetically be arrested for making a false report of an emergency or, if people die, for involuntary manslaughter, but it is not a crime in and of itself to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
Once panic sets in with a large crowd, it’s pretty much impossible to expect calmness. In an instant ppl have already made up in their minds that something terrible is happening and they need to get away from it
That's why theatres have a code phrase for 'building needs to be evacuated' so the word fire or whatever is never spoken but the staff hear it broadcast, know what's going on and prepare to evacuate the building before the public panic.
I agree. I don’t have great balance and I would avoid stairs like those without a handrail. On a recent visit to Italy I encountered many historic buildings with stairs which would never pass a modern building code. For example, look up the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. 124 steps in one continuous climb, no handrail!
That's all I could focus on - stairs and no railings,especially for a church where you are likely to have many elderly or infirm. Even kids might have found those stairs daunting.
@@calendarpage as a child I went up a set of stairs at an old Lutheran church that are SUPEr wide. You can have 20+ people easily moving up and down that staircase at once... unless they need to lean on a railing... 'cause it doesn't have much of that.
Same. I never used to worry about stuff like that, but as I've got older, the lack of handrails on stairs really bothers me. There's a similar issue with the Manchester Arena, none of the lower tier stairs have handrails and I really struggle on them, they give me vertigo. Horrible things
7:10 Props to the newspaper illustrator for getting that drawing completed and ready to print so quickly. That was probably a very important job back in the day.
This is why at any event with huge crowd that will take time to clear out of the venue, I always just find somewhere to stand/sit until most of the crowd's dispersed, no matter how long it takes. Not being trampled or crushed if there's a panic is worth waiting a while for.
I agree, but sometimes you're not given a choice. I attended a sold out Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field years ago. After the game I decided to wait in my seat until most of the crowd had exited. But I was rudely told to vacate my seat by a mean-spirited usher who couldn't care less why I was waiting. I often thought, watching the huge crowd slowly funnel out the inadequate exits, what a disaster there would be from the human crush if something bad were to happen. It could still happen today.
Additional fact: this historic building was demolished in 1927 to make room for the VA Hospital. The congregation has constructed a new building in a suburb of Birmingham. There is now room for only 1,000 people, so extra services were added to accommodate the large congregation.
Thank you for the update but I am curious why they chose to demolish a relatively new building. The church was a stunning and beautiful embodiment of the richness and importance of the Pastor and the congregation only for it to be destroyed after 25 years. This saddens me as it was an important moment and significant reminder of how important it was for POC to have representation at the turn of the century.
@@NatureLover-62150 people died there and I'm sure there were painful memories for thousands of parishioners. Additionally, those caught in the crush on the stairs were likely convinced that the design was a deathtrap.
I live "just down the road a piece" from Birmingham. Thank you for covering a piece of history I didn't even know from my own backyard! Now I'm all excited to share this video because it's local history!
That tragedy happened because the company that sold the nightclub owners soundproofing material told them the material was not flammable when in fact, it was highly flammable. Also, the Fire Marshall whose job it was to make sure that EXACTLY THAT KIND OF TRAGEDY DIDN’T HAPPEN, never tested the soundproofing material to see if it was flammable, even though it was clearly written out as part of his inspection. He never faced any charges, even though him NOT DOING HIS JOB DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTED to scores of deaths. Yes, I am yelling.
I’m a very tall individual and I always thought that if I was ever in a crush situation, I wouldn’t have to worry because I can still breathe above the crowd, until it happened to me. It wasn’t a crush situation, but it was a very congested event, it was a nightclub. It was Fort Lauderdale on Halloween night, we were all pushed together so close, I didn’t even think there was enough room to dance, it felt like the air was being pulled out of my body with how packed it was! Never wanna deal with that again, and I don’t encourage anybody to ever have to be an environment where they are in a crowd like that.
Crushes are the culmination of one of the greatest lines ever spoken in a film, more specifically Men in Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals." Mass onset hysteria will kill a crowd faster than any fire ever could. EDIT: A few people in the replies have rightfully pointed out that hysteria isn't always the cause. Most crushes are a result of insufficient space to accommodate the number of people in it, which usually boils down to poor management (which seems to be a recurring theme with the disasters covered on this channel, but we know all about that). Some also pointed out it's not always obvious when you're in a crush. There's some solid insight in this thread worth reading. I stand by this much, at least: First, never underestimate sudden onset mass hysteria (see: "Room Zero" from the Abandoned by Disney creepypastas). Second, a fire seems like a faster, kinder fate. Crushes are just another reason for me to hate crowds. EDIT #2: Yeah yeah, I referenced a creepypasta. What of it? Let's not miss the forest for the trees.
Kind of - human crushes remind me of what happens when one person tries to rescue another who is drowning - the instinct to claw at anything to pull your head above the water often leads to a thrashing nightmare of a sort of mindless attack and people pushing & pulling each other under the water. Human crushes escalate so quickly out of a combination of behaviours (that aren't really unreasonable) with circumstances of negligence and existing physical spaces being just right for the tipping point. the crazy part is that we have hundreds of years of these incidents, comprehensive safety laws and regulations designed specifically for this exact thing and modern incidents really do happen because of negligence, often deliberate dismissal of these regulations and policies. the worst part being that every time, the broad popular opinion blames "people" ie the victims of the crush, even though there's genuinely people behind the scenes AND AT the scenes who are liable
Someone who had been in a crowd crush said that the scariest part was you had absolutely no control. You go whichever direction the crowd pushes you. You can't breathe or move your arms up or down. Your instinct is to push back from the person in front of you, but the person behind you is trying to do the same. You don't know whether or not you're standing on someone unless you can move your feet. You live with the guilt --did you kill them or not? Could you have saved them?
@@eadecamp According to some counter research, most people in a crush do not act panicky or hysterical. The people adding to the crush usually do not know it is happening and aren't shoving super hard, and just aren't aware of the escalating impacts of them joining the group. People in crushes often engage in altruistic behaviour. They don't act stupid. Those joining and contributing to the crush often are far away from where it is happening and oblivious to it.
What a horrible disaster. The tragedy is that despite this particular incident and many others like it since, there are still incidents like this occurring. The Halloween crowd disaster in Seoul, South Korea is a recent example. RIP to all those who died so needlessly.
That Seoul video is chilling. You see the people moving in ripples and waves, like water. It's hard to believe anyone would let themselves be caught in that.
Makes me think of that Lana del Ray concert. Nobody was crushed but the concert was so tightly packed that when one person fell, it caused the whole audience to collapse.
What a horrible tragedy! And all over a misunderstanding. The next time someone tells me, "Words don't matter", I'll have a perfect example of just how wrong they are.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." As a married person and former student and teacher; that statement is a BIG FAT LIE.😳🤨🤔😭
Manners matter! The original, insignificant outrage: should have been easily apologized away. Quickly & sincerely apologizing & graciously accepting while being understanding and none of this would have happened.
I tend to avoid crowded areas for the fear of something like this happening. I've never heard of this incident. Thank you FH for bringing this long-forgotten and historic disaster to light
@@JWaititi The reason why you create military is that the population believes that they need protection from some external enemy. Hence it is frightened. Of course, in some countries the population is frightened of their own military (as it should be, given what any military can do to it).
For my graduate ceremony this weekend, we were jam packed into a long narrow hallway followed by an even narrower staircase, with at least a thousand students all trying to leave the building after 5 sweltering hours burning in the sun. It was so dangerous that I remembered the lessons from this and similar channels, and was alert, keeping my eye out for emergency exits (there were almost none) and mentally preparing myself to brace my arms and protect my torso in case of a crush. Thankfully in the absence of emergency the sardine stream of students eventually escaped safely through narrow passages and up stairs, but wow that path is a disaster waiting to happen (and yes, it was the official exit we were told to use).
Another excellent video, FH. 👏👏👏 Altho i will say, with the amount of people that were in that church, im amazed(and also happy) that the death toll wasnt 3 times higher than what it was. Had calm not been restored as soon as it was, it probably would have been. But the quick thinking of the ushers(for using the other exits to go to the front to assist) and the fast response of emergency services, prevented that from being the case. 🙏🙌👏👏
Amazing how people can be stampeded so easily, like cattle in a thunderstorm. Also how quick people were to lose their temper, just like today. Nothing about human nature changes.
When if people would only keep their wits about them, everyone could exit a crowded building and nobody would get crushed. But get a huge crowd in a small place and common sense goes out the window.
Don't forget the HEAT. A crowd is one thing but whole bunch of people in formal clothes PACKED into an area, oh yeah, the most insignificant thing can turn that into a full on disaster as we see in this example.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Kay Men in Black. That sentence is so true. All it takes is just one person who got afraid for some reason screaming or saying something stupid and people believe it.
@@SmokingJacket yep. And that is why I say, "the average American is too dumb to vote." It's not to say that as individuals we're stupid, but when you look at the entire collective and divide out by the population, you realize that the average "voting IQ" is bordering on that of the freezing temperature of brine water (in Fahrenheit of course). As such, we end up electing people that have no business being elected whether it be at the local, state, or national level.
I was at the front of the crowd for twenty one pilots at lollapalooza in 2019. This was before Covid, before anyone cared if they were breathing down your neck and we were packed like sardines. I was shoved so relentlessly and constantly into the barricade that I had bruises across my ribs for weeks. I distinctly remember joking with my friends about how we could pick up our legs and stay standing. This story puts a new light to how unaware we all were of the potential danger we could have been in. Horrifying.
Music venues have a lot to answer for Shepherd's Bush Empire is an absolute death trap due to selling too many tickets, Last time I was there (to see Saxon) I had to leave because I was being crushed and I was at the back and it was the same when I saw George Thorogood there a few years before that. I will never go there again and have missed many good gigs as a result.
The security at the front and the band are SUPPOSED to be paying attention to prevent crowd crushes from happening. They’re supposed to pause or take the opportunity between songs to tell people to back up and make sure no one has fallen over or gotten trampled in the crowd. Security is also supposed to watch out for anyone being crushed against the barrier so they can pull them out and make sure they’re ok. Too many bands and venues are forgetting how important crowd safety is, that’s how we had that deadly crush at a concert a few years ago.
As I already have social-anxiety, crowds freak me out anyway! You wouldn't find me anywhere near a packed auditorium such as this! Thankfully architects are now forced to avoid the pseudo temple-edifice approach to public-buildings because they are required to meet regulations enforcing disability-access!
I just look for the out of the way exit, so that if there is an issue I will be heading in a different direction than anyone else. I also pay attention to where the windows are and what is nearby to break them if I have to. Many people escaped the Station fire by going out of a window.
Fascinating Horror is one of the best channels on UA-cam--reliably consistent, well-written and produced, and one of the BEST narrators around. Thank you for always delivering amazing content, FH!
Incredible that no one considered installing OUTWARD opening exit doors with a push bar before this event, or even after this event. It took another year and the Iroquois Theatre tragedy to happen for someone to finally invent it.
It's always a good idea when you're in a venue with a large number of people to identify the nearest emergency exits. If it doesn't require stepping on too many toes, *walk* from your seat to the exit and back, so you have some memory of the escape routes. And always, always, have at least two ways out you can use if one gets blocked in a crush. Finally, if the situation feels hinky, then *get out.* Don't wait for a crisis to develop. Just turn around and get out of the danger area. I was in a crowd-crush situation once. There were some injuries but nobody was seriously hurt or killed. It was the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear on the D.C. Mall. So many people showed up that the area up to a mile from the stage was packed to the point people could not move. I was caught on the outer edge of this and realized that I'd never get anywhere near the stage - and how dangerous this would be if it got out of control. I turned around, fought my way out the edge of the crowd, grabbed a train and went home. Sometimes, it's better to miss an event than potentially losing your life to it. No event, no matter how historic, is worth that.
@@KarmicSalt The point is to bail BEFORE you end up in the middle of a crush. Then it's too late. Some crushes, like for poorly planned public events, are unavoidable, but a whole lot of them ARE avoidable. If you see a crowd that looks like it isn't moving, or doesn't look like there's any room between people, that's the time to turn around and GTFO. I've been in plenty of safe, planned public events... and a couple that obviously weren't. I got out. Same deal with indoor events. In a properly designed structure, there are a lot of emergency exits. All those hundreds try to go out of ONE exit, crush. If they split between 8 exits, no crush. And if there's only one way in or out, DON'T GO. Better to miss an event than get killed at one. This event took place over 120 years ago. Buildings then were patently unsafe in these situations. Most modern buildings are far safer.
Ever since I was introduced to your videos am so hooked ,the narration is on point,the stories are sad but the videos are extremely interesting. Thanks.
This is one of the saddest stories I've heard. Watching it from across the room must have been a nightmare. I've only been in one crowd crush, and it was nothing, really. A large crowded bar, in winter, at closing time. Everyone tried to leave at the same time when the lights came on. That's all. But everyone had checked their coats, so the foyer got blocked. A few hundred intoxicated people just kept walking into the space, and never thought to take a step back. My fiancee was just in front of me, so I just tried to make myself big and kept leaning back a bit. Which others were doing. But it got dicey. People started to panic and lose their footing, and I wasn't sure how it was going to go.
No matter where I go anymore, I check out where the exits are. Motel, restaurant, theater etc. Your videos always fascinate me. I so enjoy them. Thank you.
Me Too With children always knew my responsibility to protect. We always had a plan Even when Covid came. We protected our own safety. You have to be responsible for self.
There have been scores of crushes since. Some worse. The Cambodia bridge crush, the Mecca crush, and the Hillsborough and Peru stadium crushes. I am always looking for an escape route when I am in a crowd.
I have read aboutnthe Hajj crushes. With so many pilgrims, even those big special roads are not enough. Language barriers and national rivalries make the problem so much worse. I do not follow the Islamic faith, but I know the pilgrimage is important and it is so devastating to see those numbers and hear the personal stories. :(
There's been a couple Mecca crushes that have killed over a thousand people. I have only a base understanding of Islam, but I know one of the things Muslims do is make a pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj, which means hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in one place at the same time -- a recipe for massive crowd crushes. It's really sad that despite efforts at crowd control, deadly crushes can still happen, with one that claimed over two thousand lives happening as recently as 2015.
All crowds are scary. You can't control what others may do times however many people are there. And you can be sure that one in ten or more will panic which may set off an even larger percentage of panic. Always plan for your escape routes (plural) on the way in and consider that fire, smoke, or darkness from a loss of power may hinder you.
What I love about your disaster content, Kristian, is that you cover so many relatively unknown, sparsely circulated, and more importantly, not hackneyed and done to death by a myriad of other UA-cam channels. Along with 'Mark Felton Productions', 'Paul Joseph Watson', 'Reading the Past (with Dr. Kat Marchant)', and 'Caitlin Doughty' (formerly, 'Ask a Mortician', you have long since remained in my top 5 go-to UA-cam channels, even towards the upper end of the spectrum of those, at that.
It's been demonstrated over and over that in a panic, people try to get out the same way that they came in. This church had six exits. I'm sure that anyone remembering that fact got out just fine. It's extremely important to always know where all the exits are, and don't follow the crowd if there's an alternative way out. We've known for a long time how to prevent tragedies like this, but it still keeps happening, either through poor design or people simply not knowing to run away from the crowd if there are other ways out. And that front entrance design seems like it wasn't made with elderly or disabled parishioners in mind, panic or no panic. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.
Well, they would sound the same in a Northern accent, too, since Northerners would say the long "i" in both "fight" and "fire" in a relatively "closed" manner.
An event like this actually recently happened at my school although it did not result in any deaths. Two girls were having an argument (NOT a fight) and getting in each others faces. In order to keep it from becoming a fight, one of the police in our school went to break it up. Stupidly enough, though, he gestured towards his gun, which everyone instantly noticed. Because all the students near him expected him to shoot, a surge happened with kids running down the hallways screaming like some kind of screwed up stampede, trampling some other students. It caused mass confusion and panic in the school with some kids saying it was a school shooter and others saying there was a fire in the cafeteria.
There's nothing more terrifying than to be caught in a crowd crush so tight that bodies can't even fall. What a nightmare. Misheard shouting and a crowd is a receipe for disaster, can't imagine the PTSD survivors and witnesses went through afterwards.
Fascinating story! I can't believe I've never heard this before 😮 It's so awful. I actually used to attend services in a very old church with a similar design, so I could really picture the disaster happening
I am retired from a career in troubleshooting and root cause analysis (in IT). I really admire the way you delve into experts' analysis of all the contributing factors in a disaster. You videos are authoritative and complete.
Thank you, I grew up in Alabama, going until graduation and I do not remember a teaching on this. I did read Booker T. Washington's autobiography. I think he has been very important to the state of Alabama and our country. This is extremely sad & tragic 😢😭💔 I'm so very sorry to all those impacted with this incident.
Christian, there are certain of these tragedies that you are the most qualified person to outline and describe because of your huge sympathy and complete humanity when you share about them. I am always touched by the gentleness you use when you describe the experiences of the people who suffered survivors or victims. You have found your calling brother. I really appreciate you sharing your humanity and your care for human beings with us in this format.
That's what I was thinking! Two people couldn't recognize a genuine mistake on the part of either side! They couldn't even see the possible humor in the situation, given their overly crowded accommodations! The so-called generation of "manners and good grace" were not what they were cracked up to be!
It's so interesting you went as far back as the 1902 for this crowd crush tragedy. That poor woman talking about how all she could do was wait, even though there were dead bodies on top of her was horrifying. The people who died standing up too .. Wow. Great video as usual.
Overcrowding in a venue causing another horrific and prevantable crushing tragedy 😢 horrific how these kind of incidents happen even to this day, yet we learn nothing and venues still cram in more people than is safe on a regular basis
I recently attended an event (an airshow) where the crowd only became an issue when it was time to leave - you could only do it by car (had you bought a much more expensive ticket) or a special train (it was on the grounds of an active military base so the entrance/exit options were limited). They didn't have enough return trains for time after the aerial performances ended for the day, when logically most people would want to leave. I found myself squeezed tight in a crowd for a while, luckily nobody got hurt, though it was still quite anxiety-inducing
I wouldn't say that we've "learnt nothing". Our buildings are better designed to facilitate ingress and egress, and venue security are more aware of factors that can lead to crushes. The architectural choices seem invisible, but once you watch enough videos about crushes you'll start to see the safety features in buildings and notice when security staff are acting in certain ways, erecting or removing barriers. We've learnt a lot as a species and have prevented many crushes, and prevented crushes from becoming acute and fatal, but fatal crushes still occur in areas that are not adapted or where the event management are incompetent.
I'm a native Georgian and had never heard of this. Terrible tragedy. And there are even more recent examples. Hate the thought of being in a big crowd like this.
It is offtopic to ask this, but if s.o. says "I'm a native Georgian" - does it mean you are from Georgia (country) or from state of Georgia in USA? Georgia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the east. It is about 3,800 km by car from my home Georgia also is a state in USA, about 7,500 km with an airplane.
Many years ago, I had gone to a concert where the entrance was a small opening in a chain link fence. The crowd surged and knocked the fence over. I'm very short and the crowd was so tightly packed that I was carried over the fence without my feet touching the ground. I was carried about 30 yards before I fell to the ground. Got kicked a couple times, but I was lucky in that I didn't get seriously hurt.
The horror is it wasn’t a fire, an emergency exit or even standard exit blocked or locked, it wasn’t a construction defect…it was just too damn many people. And it still happens even in this day and age, such as that Halloween event on that street in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
I was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on sunday, sold out crowd of 95,000. After pre race ceremonies were over they told everybody to get up to their seats through the 3 small entries way through the catch fence. The 10,000 or so people who were down on the field were pushing themselves through the gate and almost started a crush. Later on in the evening, severe weather entered the area and they told the fans to leave their seats and get under the stands to take shelter from the lightning and rain. 95,000 people were either slipping down the aluminum stairs into each other, crushing each other to get outside through the small ticket gate, or trying to get to the bathrooms where people were squishing each other into the door. Absolutely insane what Sheep mentality will do to you if you aren’t careful.
@@Elizabeth-n3v2u Definitely a trend here in the south. Most Speedways are like this given the 12 year stretch of people not going to races like they used to. Charlotte removed almost 60,000 seats because of low attendance.
I was watching the race on TV and didn’t know about any of this. I am aware the reason they do this is in case of lightning but surely there’s a better, more organized way to get people to safety. Maybe “boarding zones” like they have on airplanes.
I'm in the UK. During Covid, the government reduced the hours that our supermarkets could open, and forced smaller shops to close. So instead of spreading the shopping across 24 hours, more intense crowds of people had to queue together and shop together within the reduced hours. The obvious result was simply to make the supermarkets MORE crowded. This was when I realised that the government's supposed 'prevention' strategies were nothing of the sort, and instead just an exercise in unthinking, blind compliance.
Well, the idea was the lane system, a one way trip around the main aisles, and then you could branch off to get to the aisle you wanted. Of course, not only did nobody actually adhere to those rules, but there was nobody or no structure to enforce it bar a pathetic decal marked on the floor, with arrows and lines like road markings that were a mere suggestion to most people
Wait until you here that in the US and some other nations, such mandates have been deemed illegal, unconstitutional,arbitrary, oppressive and unnecessary. Good Lord..Fauci the douche admitted himself the 6 foot rule never had any scientific basis. And regardless of all that. ...only a moron would try to stop the spread of a disease sooooo dangerous it was the next coming of the Bubonic Plague 😏 by arbitrarily closing( again now ruled to have been illegally ) select businesses ...and not expecting the general public to accumulate ..no matter the size of the structure...into what businesses were "" allowed" to remain open. It was the stupidest thing I nay have ever witnessed. And people fell hand over foot for it.
I look back at all the packed concerts I attended back in my younger days and I’m very thankful to have lived through them. I’m now 64 years old and I rarely attend a concert but when I do I always look for an exit or another way out just in case things go terribly bad.
I never liked a close crowd; as a small child, I would explain, "They're breathing my air!" Adults didn't know whether I was describing mild agoraphobia (more likely, enochloohobia) or if I really was experiencing mild suffocation. As I grew up, I continued to be very uncomfortable in crowds or close clots of people. I would risk missing lunch in school to avoid the the lunch line (unless it was monitored well) and crowding around the tables and room. I have learned to minimize the phobia symptoms by avoidance, some cognitive measures, and always planning escape routes and reaction scenarios. I don't think it's a clinical phobia with me, merely a distrust of crowd/mob behavior.
A similar thing happed in WWII when a load of people tried to get into Bethnal Green underground station being used as an air raid shelter, more civvies died that day than in any other air raid. 173 were killed including 62 children with over 60 injured, a very sad day.
If only Booker T. Washington could speak now……..Those are all extremely important points that need to be made nowadays. It’s strange how we advance so much in some areas, and wind up going so far backwards in others 🤷🏻♂️
Lmao the dude above is trying to push his Agenda. It's not affirmative action, quit blaming every Black Person you see in University as some type of Affirmative Action hire. Pick up your bootstraps, AA was banned last year even though it favored mostly White Students. But please, let's hear you're victim mentality more 🤡🤡🤡
This automatically reminds me of the Hillsborough stadium disaster. I had to experience the pictures live on TV - as an 11-year-old at the time. I didn't realize what actually happened there until at some point the bodies were covered with blankets. My father, with whom I watched the game, didn't say a word, but apparently he only realized what was happening when the lifeless bodies were covered, too. Since then, I don't really panic when there are crowds, but I prefer to stay on the edge - especially when I go to football games. I'm either there as early as possible so that I can be one of the first into the stadium, or I'd rather be 5 minutes late than join the crowd. Choking alive and being crushed to death - a horrible death that you wouldn't wish on anyone. R.i.P. 115 R.i.P. 96
Random thought: Radio and TV may have saved lives by allowing large numbers of people to hear important speakers in their own homes rather than in crowded public spaces.
When my mother was a teenager in NYC back in the day, she attended the NYE celebration in Times Square. She was nearly crushed to death upon leaving. She never went again. To this day, I avoid crowds of that sort like the plague!!!
This reminds me of the Station fire in Rhode Island. That was a real fire, so unfortunately many of the people crushed together and could not move died of fire related injuries. When I was young and started hearing about these crushes, I did not understand. The first time I had heard of one was when I was 9 or 10--The Who concert tragedy. A few years later when I was in my teens, one of the soccer stadiums in UK had several dozens (hundreds?) of deaths. I recall seeing it on the news and thinking, "Just get up!" It wasn't until later that I understood that it is not quite that easy, or people wouldn't really be dying en masse in the mass crushes.
I thought of the same thing, the Station Nightclub. Poor design of the main entrance contributed to the fatalities there. I think there is something in the fire codes that dictate 50% of the capacity has to be factored into the design of the main entrance because, in an emergency, most people will try to leave the way they came in, even if there is another emergency exit closer to them.
The last line of this doco is very strange. Crowd crush events are almost as common as nightclub fires world wide. Having studied several of these events, it seems to me that we don't know enough about how bodies get tangled in these crushes. It is vitally important that such tragic events are documented in great detail, because I cannot see how one could recreate such a crush without putting live subject in peril. We really need to understand how these crushes build up, because rescuing people quickly is vital. If we learn how to map piles of dead and dying people it may be possible to save more of them. In particular, we may be able to develop a technique for removing a stuck person. I doubt that there will be a 'key log' that will unlock the pile, but there may be a 'recovery position' that makes it easier to pull someone out.
I’ve always been very careful about what buildings or events I attend because of how crowds can react. I saw one event when I was in school and I’ll never risk going into a crowded environment. People panic and then there’s no talking to them.
My most traumatic event like this happened at Lollapalooza in August 1991, Reston, VA. I was in a pressed crowd some 30-40 yards from center stage waiting for Nine Inch Nails to take the stage. When NIN started the first notes of opening song the crowd surged and I was suddenly 3 to 4 people from the barrier at center stage, but something wasn't right. There was a mass of people under the feet of everyone some 10-15 yards from the barrier out. The band continued to play while we all worked to free everyone. I lifted a girl over the barrier for security to take her to first aid/paramedics. She was limp. I don't know what her fate was. The best way I can describe the push is: if you've ever been wading down the shore and a large breaking wave tumbles you. Except the wave was bodies. And you either tumble down to the bottom or scramble to get your head above the surface. I was a lean young man at the time, so I was lucky to not get crushed. Instinct had me scrambling up, not forward or pressing back. Since that event, and similar concert events/public spectacles after, I've developed a rather intense claustrophobia. I have nightmares where I'm either trampled and crushed or I'm trampling and crushing other people...sometimes it's loved ones. Thanks for letting me share this.
I didn’t know about this event, over 100 people dying in the crush is just scary. Plus I can’t imagine the horrified feeling of being next to a person that died and you’re next to it.
Its a beautiful building and although crowded and hot it seemed like a wonderful event. Reminds me of the connecuit circus tent fire, or the great white concert fire, or the grand opening of the Brooklyn bridge disaster. Some are fires but many are caused by panic alone. Frantic excitement or panic in crowded situations can kill. It kind of compounds with the me first or the fear of death survival instincts.
So many tragedies of this nature occur because people aren't aware of all the exits from a building. It's human nature when panic takes hold to attempt to leave by whatever route you used to enter. Take a little time and look for the quickest and easiest way out if there's an emergency.
Wow! My grandma was only 5 months old when this happened! No wonder I never heard of this! She obviously wouldn't be reading the newspapers back then!! LOL!! This is just horrible. What a very sad thing to come out of such a positive speech! I wish today we had speakers like Booker. He was powerful and changed so many lives for the better. A great man indeed!
Wonder what happened to the 2 people who were involved in the fight and the person who shouted about the fight and the people thought there was a fire and caused the panic? I can't find an answer online. Did they die along with the others? Were the 2 people fighting arrested? Did the person who shout spend the rest of their life living in guilt?
I find it hard to understand how this happens. I know it does but when I first heard about it I couldn't get my head around it. Sounds like an horrific way to go.
I've done a few other videos covering crowd crushes... including some more recent ones. Here's the video I made a few years back about the Who Concert Crush in Cincinnati in 1979: ua-cam.com/video/PntgiGbnwNg/v-deo.html
You're summary at the end of the video is simply wrong. The crushes at Mecca continue to this day, even after several upgrades to the pilgrimage site. And they kill far more people.
Can you do the Travis Scott concert?
Freckleton Air Disaster.
Did you not like me saying that you were wrong in the video? And that people haven't learned from the past? And that crowd crushes are still going on?
Reasons why I avoided crowded areas or areas where the exit is hidden.
Watching this channel has made me wary of being anywhere where there's an overcrowding of people, especially if it's not an open space (ie. it's inside a building, inside a fenced place, or the like.)
Completely understand, when I was younger I used to go to rock concerts and alcohol was served. Always put your girl in front of you while walking to or away from your seats because guys would take their perverse hand to play grab ass or worse. Bonner Springs Kansas at the used to be called Sandstone amphitheater.
You saw this was over 100 years ago, right? Touch grass!! 😂
@user-by7ti1fc7f crushes happen yearly. Find another way to tell us you're an a******.😂
@@PukeyMcDork You didn't hear about the Itaewon Halloween crush just a few years ago?
@@PukeyMcDork Crushes still happen, e.g., Astroworld
Crushes scare me more than a fire does. With smoke inhalation you pass out pretty quickly, but in a crush, you are stuck there, unable to breathe, twisted among all the other bodies and getting just enough air to prolong your suffering. It sounds absolutely brutal.
Claustro-nightmare
It might as well be walls closing in on you 😨
I once made my way to the front of the first concert I'd ever been to about 15 years ago (The Warped Tour). I quickly learned what a mistake that was and if it wasn't for a really nice man who helped me make my way out, I have no doubt I wouldn't have made it out. It's soo scary...
Those long dresses must have trapped those women, with all those people on top of them. I always wear shoes that I can break into a run with. No backless or high heels. Nowadays, you have to be careful & be aware of your surroundings.
(Parades, movies, marathons, restaurants, shopping, schools have all been crime scenes).
Agree with you. Once got caught in a crush in a tunnel at a rock festival. Wasn't for very long, but never again!! Nothing surpasses that feeling of panic, not being able to move or breathe!
Wow! I'm 67, lived and worked in and near Birmingham all my life and I've never heard of this terrible disaster! Thank you for covering this.
I'm from Decatur and the same age as you. This incident never came up and I wonder why.
I just moved after almost 17 years in the Bham area and i never heard of this either. Fascinating.
I find that interesting. You think it would be a day memorialized in the area. Kind of odd actually. 115 dead is a big deal in 1902 birmingham
We knew of this in Atlanta, in the 60's.
Grew up here and never heard this.
My brother's girlfriend died in the crush at The Who concert at Riverfront Stadium. Since then we're all careful. Too packed? Can't find the exits? Too far from the exit?Our lives aren't worth it.
did you watch the video he did on that?
I am old enough to remember that crush. Luckily we went to the Who Concert in DC instead. Sorry for your & the family's loss. 🥀
@@BlueWolf-tg1bf Thanks. I was 15.
I did. The band had no idea what was going on when they played.
I lost an elementary school classmate (by the time of the concert, we were attending different high schools). I think about him every December.
This is why I hate crowds.
This is why I hate people.
Just the view of a packed football stadium on TV is enough to give me the shudders!
Crowds are killers.
If large crowds aren't profitable today, they don't exist.
Yea I bet you're dodging fatal crowds all the time
/s
It really makes you realise how many things that we take for granted are actually to prevent crush situations. Fire drills, for example, get you practiced in leaving calmly. The "beep, beep" tones in a real emergency to tell you to get ready to evacuate, rather than evacuating when you are still surprised by a loud noise. And then there's the architecture, with handrails on stairwells and landings at a regular frequency, and bends in the path to break up the force of crushes. Crowd controllers "officiously" telling people not to stand in walkways. Exit doors with push bars. Secure doors that are electronically triggered to open on an alarm and provide no resistance to evacuation. Wide open foyers with no choke points. It's all designed for safety; we take it for granted, we dont even see it, but it's all there.
People really take the fire drill one for granted. I see too many comments online from people complaining about it and thinking we should be running out, while completely ignoring the purpose of them. They exist to ensure everyone gets out safely. Panic only causes issues.
As the saying goes, "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast."
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I was at a school with inner yard surrounded by buildings on all sides. Think a hollow square structure when looking from above. We would go there to play and run around during recess. There was one door to go back to the school building from the yard.
One day my class got carried away with games when the bell rang. We rushed back to go to class. Entered through the door and then in a few meters would need to go up a flight of stairs. Someone fell, then the ones behind them fell, and the rest of the kids kept squeezing through the door from the yard. We were maybe 15-20 kids and it only lasted for a minute or two, but I remember myself half lying on top of someone, flailing my arms in front of me and just not being able to move neither forwards nor backwards, kids around shouting. It was a tiny tiny jam in comparison, but I still recall it 25 years later and that flash of fear and helplessness. I can now understand that the entrance design was bad, especially for a school where crowds move at speed at the sound of a bell.
Several years ago there was an accident like that in a Chinese school that led to at least one fatality. Really sad! I'm very cautious on stairs and escalators because I worry about these kind of things.
Scary indeed.
There's nothing wrong with the designs of your school or the church. Buildings are not designed to accommodate people behaving like frightened sheep. Mass hysteria, or reckless dashing and shoving by impatient or panicking people, cannot be blamed on anything or anyone but the people themselves. When will people realize that a modicum of composure, patience, thoughtfulness, and fortitude will move a crowd from danger far more quickly and safely than hysteria.
Oh My❤❤❤❤
@@theresedavis2526 Do you also tell people with mental illnesses to "just get over it"? That's what you're doing now, expecting people who already out of their mind to suddenly regain composure when the circumstances are explicitly encouraging the opposite via instinct.
Uuugggghhh all of these disasters are awful but crushes are so so disturbing to me. A writhing stuck mass of panicked humans is just a horrifying and heartbreaking thought 💔
Over the years I have seen several news stories about crushes. It does not make sense when I see the people all over each other and I think, "Just get up!" Obviously, it does not work that way!
I'v read the story of the Great White concert in Rhode Island. There was a mass of people trying to get out of the door and became trapped, piled up on each other. Half in, half out, but the rescuers couldn't get them freed. They all died.
@@su-rv2uq makes it even worse considering the fire and the fact that some would have been burning alive too, unable to move or do anything but scream...
@@su-rv2uq I think footage of Great White was where I realized one cannot simply get up or in that case, get out (if I recall, many were standing up and could not make it out of the door due to being trapped).
So if you've ever wondered why you can be arrested for yelling "Fire!" in a crowded building when there is none, now you know.
Wrong, it is not illegal and you cannot be lawfully arrested. However, you will probably make the news and get banned from the theater
Actually, "fun" fact for the day: It is not by itself illegal in the United States to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater. No, really, it isn't. It has never been the law of the land in the US. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion in _Schenck v. United States_ held it as an example of the limits of free speech, but it's never been settled law, and that case was overturned 50 years later in 1969, as part of _Brandenburg v. Ohio._ You _can_ hypothetically be arrested for making a false report of an emergency or, if people die, for involuntary manslaughter, but it is not a crime in and of itself to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
@hotelmario510, Just because you call something a fun fact that you know isn't true when you say it doesn't make it a fact.
That’s a myth actually.
Lmao this is the dumbest false belief that people still hold. IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO YELL FIRE IN A CROWDED THEATER OR ANYWHERE ELSE!
Once panic sets in with a large crowd, it’s pretty much impossible to expect calmness. In an instant ppl have already made up in their minds that something terrible is happening and they need to get away from it
That's why theatres have a code phrase for 'building needs to be evacuated' so the word fire or whatever is never spoken but the staff hear it broadcast, know what's going on and prepare to evacuate the building before the public panic.
Perfectly stated
As much as people compare humanity to a pack, I also think we’re a flock of sheep. One gets spooked, the rest will react.
@@strangeweirdandproud1319this humanity is a mistake.
@@zephyrr108 I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand what you mean? Could you clarify what you mean a bit please?
Those stairs, sans railings, look daunting to me anyway, even without a crush of people
I agree. I don’t have great balance and I would avoid stairs like those without a handrail. On a recent visit to Italy I encountered many historic buildings with stairs which would never pass a modern building code. For example, look up the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. 124 steps in one continuous climb, no handrail!
That's all I could focus on - stairs and no railings,especially for a church where you are likely to have many elderly or infirm. Even kids might have found those stairs daunting.
I noticed the lack of railings, too.
@@calendarpage as a child I went up a set of stairs at an old Lutheran church that are SUPEr wide. You can have 20+ people easily moving up and down that staircase at once... unless they need to lean on a railing... 'cause it doesn't have much of that.
Same. I never used to worry about stuff like that, but as I've got older, the lack of handrails on stairs really bothers me. There's a similar issue with the Manchester Arena, none of the lower tier stairs have handrails and I really struggle on them, they give me vertigo. Horrible things
7:10 Props to the newspaper illustrator for getting that drawing completed and ready to print so quickly. That was probably a very important job back in the day.
This is why at any event with huge crowd that will take time to clear out of the venue, I always just find somewhere to stand/sit until most of the crowd's dispersed, no matter how long it takes. Not being trampled or crushed if there's a panic is worth waiting a while for.
I leave early to avoid the crowd that leaves early to avoid the crowd.
I agree, but sometimes you're not given a choice. I attended a sold out Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field years ago. After the game I decided to wait in my seat until most of the crowd had exited. But I was rudely told to vacate my seat by a mean-spirited usher who couldn't care less why I was waiting. I often thought, watching the huge crowd slowly funnel out the inadequate exits, what a disaster there would be from the human crush if something bad were to happen. It could still happen today.
I’m holding the door
@@UnderstandableincompetenceClosed?
Additional fact: this historic building was demolished in 1927 to make room for the VA Hospital. The congregation has constructed a new building in a suburb of Birmingham. There is now room for only 1,000 people, so extra services were added to accommodate the large congregation.
Cool fact. I hadn't known this.
Ah I was wondering what happened to the church
Thank you for the follow-up. I wondered what happened to the building.
Thank you for the update but I am curious why they chose to demolish a relatively new building. The church was a stunning and beautiful embodiment of the richness and importance of the Pastor and the congregation only for it to be destroyed after 25 years. This saddens me as it was an important moment and significant reminder of how important it was for POC to have representation at the turn of the century.
@@NatureLover-62150 people died there and I'm sure there were painful memories for thousands of parishioners. Additionally, those caught in the crush on the stairs were likely convinced that the design was a deathtrap.
I live "just down the road a piece" from Birmingham. Thank you for covering a piece of history I didn't even know from my own backyard! Now I'm all excited to share this video because it's local history!
The video of the Station Nightclub fire is a horrific example of what happens when a crowd panics. Horrific way to die
That video is one of the most horrific things I've ever seen
That tragedy happened because the company that sold the nightclub owners soundproofing material told them the material was not flammable when in fact, it was highly flammable. Also, the Fire Marshall whose job it was to make sure that EXACTLY THAT KIND OF TRAGEDY DIDN’T HAPPEN, never tested the soundproofing material to see if it was flammable, even though it was clearly written out as part of his inspection. He never faced any charges, even though him NOT DOING HIS JOB DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTED to scores of deaths. Yes, I am yelling.
The foam material used at the Station Nightclub (which is often referred to as "solid fuel") is STILL used in beds and furniture.
@NoNameNumberTwo "yes. I am yelling"
You have no reason to, here, in a comments section, years after it happened.
@@maralonent6257 its the internet, who cares if someone is "yelling" I can't fkn hear them and neither can you.....
I’m a very tall individual and I always thought that if I was ever in a crush situation, I wouldn’t have to worry because I can still breathe above the crowd, until it happened to me. It wasn’t a crush situation, but it was a very congested event, it was a nightclub. It was Fort Lauderdale on Halloween night, we were all pushed together so close, I didn’t even think there was enough room to dance, it felt like the air was being pulled out of my body with how packed it was! Never wanna deal with that again, and I don’t encourage anybody to ever have to be an environment where they are in a crowd like that.
I had a brush with it too and it's one of those things I don't think you ever understand until you're in it. Nothing prepares you.
When he started elaborately describing the entrance of the building, I knew exactly what we were getting into lol
The word "bottleneck" sprang to mind!!
Lol
Just the steps alone would never be allowed today. That shape with no rails is a deathtrap for 1 person let alone 4,000
Lol. Really?
“Lol”🤦🏾♀️👎🏾🙄
Crushes are the culmination of one of the greatest lines ever spoken in a film, more specifically Men in Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals." Mass onset hysteria will kill a crowd faster than any fire ever could.
EDIT: A few people in the replies have rightfully pointed out that hysteria isn't always the cause. Most crushes are a result of insufficient space to accommodate the number of people in it, which usually boils down to poor management (which seems to be a recurring theme with the disasters covered on this channel, but we know all about that). Some also pointed out it's not always obvious when you're in a crush. There's some solid insight in this thread worth reading. I stand by this much, at least: First, never underestimate sudden onset mass hysteria (see: "Room Zero" from the Abandoned by Disney creepypastas). Second, a fire seems like a faster, kinder fate. Crushes are just another reason for me to hate crowds.
EDIT #2: Yeah yeah, I referenced a creepypasta. What of it? Let's not miss the forest for the trees.
I've used that quote many a time. Very wise words.
Love that movie, and the quote is SO true!
Kind of - human crushes remind me of what happens when one person tries to rescue another who is drowning - the instinct to claw at anything to pull your head above the water often leads to a thrashing nightmare of a sort of mindless attack and people pushing & pulling each other under the water.
Human crushes escalate so quickly out of a combination of behaviours (that aren't really unreasonable) with circumstances of negligence and existing physical spaces being just right for the tipping point.
the crazy part is that we have hundreds of years of these incidents, comprehensive safety laws and regulations designed specifically for this exact thing and modern incidents really do happen because of negligence, often deliberate dismissal of these regulations and policies. the worst part being that every time, the broad popular opinion blames "people" ie the victims of the crush, even though there's genuinely people behind the scenes AND AT the scenes who are liable
Someone who had been in a crowd crush said that the scariest part was you had absolutely no control. You go whichever direction the crowd pushes you. You can't breathe or move your arms up or down. Your instinct is to push back from the person in front of you, but the person behind you is trying to do the same. You don't know whether or not you're standing on someone unless you can move your feet. You live with the guilt --did you kill them or not? Could you have saved them?
@@eadecamp According to some counter research, most people in a crush do not act panicky or hysterical. The people adding to the crush usually do not know it is happening and aren't shoving super hard, and just aren't aware of the escalating impacts of them joining the group. People in crushes often engage in altruistic behaviour. They don't act stupid. Those joining and contributing to the crush often are far away from where it is happening and oblivious to it.
What a horrible disaster. The tragedy is that despite this particular incident and many others like it since, there are still incidents like this occurring. The Halloween crowd disaster in Seoul, South Korea is a recent example. RIP to all those who died so needlessly.
That Seoul video is chilling. You see the people moving in ripples and waves, like water. It's hard to believe anyone would let themselves be caught in that.
Makes me think of that Lana del Ray concert. Nobody was crushed but the concert was so tightly packed that when one person fell, it caused the whole audience to collapse.
Really? I saw a video and it was said to be witch craft being used on the audience.
@@rocheljohnson4925no❤️
@rocheljohnson49😂25
@@rocheljohnson4925 she was singing season of the witch
@@rocheljohnson4925lol what? Witchcraft is not real. Be serious and grow up ty.
What a horrible tragedy! And all over a misunderstanding. The next time someone tells me, "Words don't matter", I'll have a perfect example of just how wrong they are.
Right, Julie. Turn this(and anything, really) into a reason to stop people you dont know from saying things you dont like.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."
As a married person and former student and teacher; that statement is a BIG FAT LIE.😳🤨🤔😭
@@Cherokee-r8h AMEN!
Manners matter! The original, insignificant outrage: should have been easily apologized away. Quickly & sincerely apologizing & graciously accepting while being understanding and none of this would have happened.
@@brandyjean7015 ABSOLUTELY! Exactly what you would expect (and didn't get) at a meeting in a house of worship.
I tend to avoid crowded areas for the fear of something like this happening. I've never heard of this incident. Thank you FH for bringing this long-forgotten and historic disaster to light
Cry and cope.
@@theenzoferrari458 who hurt you?
Frightened humans terrify me...which is why I am afraid of crowds...you just never know when something crazy can happen...
Also observe that every military in the world is built upon the concept of "frightened humans".
@clray123 lol what? No they're built upon the concept of force.
@@JWaititi The reason why you create military is that the population believes that they need protection from some external enemy. Hence it is frightened. Of course, in some countries the population is frightened of their own military (as it should be, given what any military can do to it).
For my graduate ceremony this weekend, we were jam packed into a long narrow hallway followed by an even narrower staircase, with at least a thousand students all trying to leave the building after 5 sweltering hours burning in the sun. It was so dangerous that I remembered the lessons from this and similar channels, and was alert, keeping my eye out for emergency exits (there were almost none) and mentally preparing myself to brace my arms and protect my torso in case of a crush. Thankfully in the absence of emergency the sardine stream of students eventually escaped safely through narrow passages and up stairs, but wow that path is a disaster waiting to happen (and yes, it was the official exit we were told to use).
Another excellent video, FH. 👏👏👏 Altho i will say, with the amount of people that were in that church, im amazed(and also happy) that the death toll wasnt 3 times higher than what it was. Had calm not been restored as soon as it was, it probably would have been. But the quick thinking of the ushers(for using the other exits to go to the front to assist) and the fast response of emergency services, prevented that from being the case. 🙏🙌👏👏
Amazing how people can be stampeded so easily, like cattle in a thunderstorm. Also how quick people were to lose their temper, just like today. Nothing about human nature changes.
Seems only the technology changes.
The more things change the more things stay the same.
If this was today, shots would have been fired because someone was dissed.
When if people would only keep their wits about them, everyone could exit a crowded building and nobody would get crushed. But get a huge crowd in a small place and common sense goes out the window.
Don't forget the HEAT. A crowd is one thing but whole bunch of people in formal clothes PACKED into an area, oh yeah, the most insignificant thing can turn that into a full on disaster as we see in this example.
Just looking at the design of the church gave a massive sense of impending tragedy. And the death toll of 115 victims was utterly shocking
I suppose it was probably inspired by the biblical description of the Temple of Solomon
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Kay Men in Black. That sentence is so true. All it takes is just one person who got afraid for some reason screaming or saying something stupid and people believe it.
And entire presidential elections have been decided on similar reasons.
In a Private Pilots study manual, panic is listed as the top cause of accidents.
Apologize to animals
@@SmokingJacket yep. And that is why I say, "the average American is too dumb to vote." It's not to say that as individuals we're stupid, but when you look at the entire collective and divide out by the population, you realize that the average "voting IQ" is bordering on that of the freezing temperature of brine water (in Fahrenheit of course). As such, we end up electing people that have no business being elected whether it be at the local, state, or national level.
and the demoCRAPS create false fear fantasies to win votes, human manipulation
I was at the front of the crowd for twenty one pilots at lollapalooza in 2019. This was before Covid, before anyone cared if they were breathing down your neck and we were packed like sardines. I was shoved so relentlessly and constantly into the barricade that I had bruises across my ribs for weeks. I distinctly remember joking with my friends about how we could pick up our legs and stay standing. This story puts a new light to how unaware we all were of the potential danger we could have been in. Horrifying.
Music venues have a lot to answer for Shepherd's Bush Empire is an absolute death trap due to selling too many tickets, Last time I was there (to see Saxon) I had to leave because I was being crushed and I was at the back and it was the same when I saw George Thorogood there a few years before that. I will never go there again and have missed many good gigs as a result.
i remember watching the video about a music festival, i think the love festival, where something like this happened
I too, was also pulled from in front of the stage barrier, to safety, by security, watching a band that nobody cares about either 😂
Gay festival. So acting like canned sardines is fitting
The security at the front and the band are SUPPOSED to be paying attention to prevent crowd crushes from happening. They’re supposed to pause or take the opportunity between songs to tell people to back up and make sure no one has fallen over or gotten trampled in the crowd. Security is also supposed to watch out for anyone being crushed against the barrier so they can pull them out and make sure they’re ok.
Too many bands and venues are forgetting how important crowd safety is, that’s how we had that deadly crush at a concert a few years ago.
Fascinating Horror has made me never go into a crowded building.
Agree totally!
Same
For me its caves or something similar. But, yea, RIGHT?!?
As I already have social-anxiety, crowds freak me out anyway! You wouldn't find me anywhere near a packed auditorium such as this!
Thankfully architects are now forced to avoid the pseudo temple-edifice approach to public-buildings because they are required to meet regulations enforcing disability-access!
I just look for the out of the way exit, so that if there is an issue I will be heading in a different direction than anyone else. I also pay attention to where the windows are and what is nearby to break them if I have to. Many people escaped the Station fire by going out of a window.
Fascinating Horror is one of the best channels on UA-cam--reliably consistent, well-written and produced, and one of the BEST narrators around. Thank you for always delivering amazing content, FH!
Incredible that no one considered installing OUTWARD opening exit doors with a push bar before this event, or even after this event. It took another year and the Iroquois Theatre tragedy to happen for someone to finally invent it.
It's always a good idea when you're in a venue with a large number of people to identify the nearest emergency exits. If it doesn't require stepping on too many toes, *walk* from your seat to the exit and back, so you have some memory of the escape routes. And always, always, have at least two ways out you can use if one gets blocked in a crush. Finally, if the situation feels hinky, then *get out.* Don't wait for a crisis to develop. Just turn around and get out of the danger area.
I was in a crowd-crush situation once. There were some injuries but nobody was seriously hurt or killed. It was the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear on the D.C. Mall. So many people showed up that the area up to a mile from the stage was packed to the point people could not move. I was caught on the outer edge of this and realized that I'd never get anywhere near the stage - and how dangerous this would be if it got out of control. I turned around, fought my way out the edge of the crowd, grabbed a train and went home.
Sometimes, it's better to miss an event than potentially losing your life to it. No event, no matter how historic, is worth that.
yeah, turn around and get out like the hundreds around you...that is what causes it
@@KarmicSalt The point is to bail BEFORE you end up in the middle of a crush. Then it's too late. Some crushes, like for poorly planned public events, are unavoidable, but a whole lot of them ARE avoidable. If you see a crowd that looks like it isn't moving, or doesn't look like there's any room between people, that's the time to turn around and GTFO. I've been in plenty of safe, planned public events... and a couple that obviously weren't. I got out. Same deal with indoor events. In a properly designed structure, there are a lot of emergency exits. All those hundreds try to go out of ONE exit, crush. If they split between 8 exits, no crush. And if there's only one way in or out, DON'T GO. Better to miss an event than get killed at one.
This event took place over 120 years ago. Buildings then were patently unsafe in these situations. Most modern buildings are far safer.
0:58 Rev. T.W. Walker looks like a time traveler! *His hair cut was **_SHARP!_*
Ever since I was introduced to your videos am so hooked ,the narration is on point,the stories are sad but the videos are extremely interesting. Thanks.
This is one of the saddest stories I've heard. Watching it from across the room must have been a nightmare. I've only been in one crowd crush, and it was nothing, really. A large crowded bar, in winter, at closing time. Everyone tried to leave at the same time when the lights came on. That's all. But everyone had checked their coats, so the foyer got blocked. A few hundred intoxicated people just kept walking into the space, and never thought to take a step back. My fiancee was just in front of me, so I just tried to make myself big and kept leaning back a bit. Which others were doing. But it got dicey. People started to panic and lose their footing, and I wasn't sure how it was going to go.
No matter where I go anymore, I check out where the exits are. Motel, restaurant, theater etc. Your videos always fascinate me. I so enjoy them. Thank you.
I started after seeing ‘The Towering inferno’
Same here, and I try to be close to an exit.
Me Too
With children always knew my responsibility to protect. We always had a plan
Even when Covid came. We protected our own safety.
You have to be responsible for self.
Crush disasters are so scary, because they can escalate so quickly
There have been scores of crushes since. Some worse. The Cambodia bridge crush, the Mecca crush, and the Hillsborough and Peru stadium crushes. I am always looking for an escape route when I am in a crowd.
I have read aboutnthe Hajj crushes. With so many pilgrims, even those big special roads are not enough. Language barriers and national rivalries make the problem so much worse. I do not follow the Islamic faith, but I know the pilgrimage is important and it is so devastating to see those numbers and hear the personal stories. :(
There's been a couple Mecca crushes that have killed over a thousand people. I have only a base understanding of Islam, but I know one of the things Muslims do is make a pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj, which means hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in one place at the same time -- a recipe for massive crowd crushes. It's really sad that despite efforts at crowd control, deadly crushes can still happen, with one that claimed over two thousand lives happening as recently as 2015.
The station nightclub fire too
I had a feeling that this would involve the world “fire”
Especially when the person yelled “It’s a fight.”
Heard Booker T and knew violence would be involved.
Or, "REALIZED", in crime UA-cam channels. It's driving me bonkers.
*word
Your comment has a tone of racism. @@TheoneandonlyJobis
This could happen anytime anywhere. Overcrowded places are scary.
All crowds are scary. You can't control what others may do times however many people are there. And you can be sure that one in ten or more will panic which may set off an even larger percentage of panic. Always plan for your escape routes (plural) on the way in and consider that fire, smoke, or darkness from a loss of power may hinder you.
I’ve lived here for several decades and never knew this. Thank you for sharing. Makes me more aware of history here.
What I love about your disaster content, Kristian, is that you cover so many relatively unknown, sparsely circulated, and more importantly, not hackneyed and done to death by a myriad of other UA-cam channels. Along with 'Mark Felton Productions', 'Paul Joseph Watson', 'Reading the Past (with Dr. Kat Marchant)', and 'Caitlin Doughty' (formerly, 'Ask a Mortician', you have long since remained in my top 5 go-to UA-cam channels, even towards the upper end of the spectrum of those, at that.
It's been demonstrated over and over that in a panic, people try to get out the same way that they came in. This church had six exits. I'm sure that anyone remembering that fact got out just fine. It's extremely important to always know where all the exits are, and don't follow the crowd if there's an alternative way out. We've known for a long time how to prevent tragedies like this, but it still keeps happening, either through poor design or people simply not knowing to run away from the crowd if there are other ways out.
And that front entrance design seems like it wasn't made with elderly or disabled parishioners in mind, panic or no panic. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.
It was 1902. They didn't do special or accommodating, entrances back then.
As a Southerner, I can totally see how those words sound the same... Our accent
Well, they would sound the same in a Northern accent, too, since Northerners would say the long "i" in both "fight" and "fire" in a relatively "closed" manner.
An event like this actually recently happened at my school although it did not result in any deaths. Two girls were having an argument (NOT a fight) and getting in each others faces. In order to keep it from becoming a fight, one of the police in our school went to break it up. Stupidly enough, though, he gestured towards his gun, which everyone instantly noticed. Because all the students near him expected him to shoot, a surge happened with kids running down the hallways screaming like some kind of screwed up stampede, trampling some other students. It caused mass confusion and panic in the school with some kids saying it was a school shooter and others saying there was a fire in the cafeteria.
4,000 people?!
That is too many for one building like that!😮
I had never heard of this tragedy. Thank you so much for covering it. Kudos to the preacher for trying his best!
There's nothing more terrifying than to be caught in a crowd crush so tight that bodies can't even fall. What a nightmare. Misheard shouting and a crowd is a receipe for disaster, can't imagine the PTSD survivors and witnesses went through afterwards.
Fascinating story! I can't believe I've never heard this before 😮 It's so awful. I actually used to attend services in a very old church with a similar design, so I could really picture the disaster happening
I hadn't heard of this. Thank you for sharing the story.
I am retired from a career in troubleshooting and root cause analysis (in IT). I really admire the way you delve into experts' analysis of all the contributing factors in a disaster. You videos are authoritative and complete.
I can’t say I actually enjoy these stories, but they’re certainly interesting. Well done, as always.
Fine to be horrified at the story, but appreciative of the story teller 👍
Would you say you’re fascinated yet horrified?
@@kingofsinter8416 As a matter of fact, yes.
Thank you, I grew up in Alabama, going until graduation and I do not remember a teaching on this. I did read Booker T. Washington's autobiography. I think he has been very important to the state of Alabama and our country.
This is extremely sad & tragic 😢😭💔 I'm so very sorry to all those impacted with this incident.
This disaster is one I have never ever heard before... Two thumbs up to good research
This happened in my state and my city, and I have never heard of this disaster. So shocking and sad. Thank you for sharing.
Christian, there are certain of these tragedies that you are the most qualified person to outline and describe because of your huge sympathy and complete humanity when you share about them. I am always touched by the gentleness you use when you describe the experiences of the people who suffered survivors or victims. You have found your calling brother. I really appreciate you sharing your humanity and your care for human beings with us in this format.
Thank you for this video. I am African American and have never heard of this crush before. Your page is excellent for learning so much history.
Thank you for your videos, you're well-spoken, well researched and respectful! Thanks for all the work you put into these!
All those steps at a steep angle leading into the church and no railings? This was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
All due to 2 people without enough humanity to say "Excuse me" and "That's ok." Our social bankruptcy is not a new development.
That's what I was thinking! Two people couldn't recognize a genuine mistake on the part of either side! They couldn't even see the possible humor in the situation, given their overly crowded accommodations! The so-called generation of "manners and good grace" were not what they were cracked up to be!
@theresedavis2526 it's laughable that you think 2 people represent a whole generation.
@@chick_nuggs9318 No one is suggesting that it applies to everyone
no one really knows what started it. It is guessed at.
I say it ten times every time I go to wal mart
It's so interesting you went as far back as the 1902 for this crowd crush tragedy. That poor woman talking about how all she could do was wait, even though there were dead bodies on top of her was horrifying. The people who died standing up too .. Wow. Great video as usual.
As Bjork once said “If you ever get close to a human and human behaviour - be ready, be ready to get confused”
Overcrowding in a venue causing another horrific and prevantable crushing tragedy 😢 horrific how these kind of incidents happen even to this day, yet we learn nothing and venues still cram in more people than is safe on a regular basis
I recently attended an event (an airshow) where the crowd only became an issue when it was time to leave - you could only do it by car (had you bought a much more expensive ticket) or a special train (it was on the grounds of an active military base so the entrance/exit options were limited). They didn't have enough return trains for time after the aerial performances ended for the day, when logically most people would want to leave. I found myself squeezed tight in a crowd for a while, luckily nobody got hurt, though it was still quite anxiety-inducing
I wouldn't say that we've "learnt nothing". Our buildings are better designed to facilitate ingress and egress, and venue security are more aware of factors that can lead to crushes. The architectural choices seem invisible, but once you watch enough videos about crushes you'll start to see the safety features in buildings and notice when security staff are acting in certain ways, erecting or removing barriers.
We've learnt a lot as a species and have prevented many crushes, and prevented crushes from becoming acute and fatal, but fatal crushes still occur in areas that are not adapted or where the event management are incompetent.
Excellent video. I’m from Birmingham, AL, and I have never heard about this event before
I'm a native Georgian and had never heard of this. Terrible tragedy. And there are even more recent examples. Hate the thought of being in a big crowd like this.
Being in a church in Alabama would be torture
It is offtopic to ask this, but if s.o. says "I'm a native Georgian" - does it mean you are from Georgia (country) or from state of Georgia in USA?
Georgia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the east. It is about 3,800 km by car from my home
Georgia also is a state in USA, about 7,500 km with an airplane.
I’m glad we understand that architecture contributes to crushes now. It seems pretty obvious but I guess it wasn’t back then.
Religious types just put it all down to god. His will etc. Thankfully science can prevail.
Many years ago, I had gone to a concert where the entrance was a small opening in a chain link fence. The crowd surged and knocked the fence over. I'm very short and the crowd was so tightly packed that I was carried over the fence without my feet touching the ground. I was carried about 30 yards before I fell to the ground. Got kicked a couple times, but I was lucky in that I didn't get seriously hurt.
The horror is it wasn’t a fire, an emergency exit or even standard exit blocked or locked, it wasn’t a construction defect…it was just too damn many people. And it still happens even in this day and age, such as that Halloween event on that street in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
I was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on sunday, sold out crowd of 95,000. After pre race ceremonies were over they told everybody to get up to their seats through the 3 small entries way through the catch fence. The 10,000 or so people who were down on the field were pushing themselves through the gate and almost started a crush. Later on in the evening, severe weather entered the area and they told the fans to leave their seats and get under the stands to take shelter from the lightning and rain. 95,000 people were either slipping down the aluminum stairs into each other, crushing each other to get outside through the small ticket gate, or trying to get to the bathrooms where people were squishing each other into the door. Absolutely insane what Sheep mentality will do to you if you aren’t careful.
That sounds like insanely poor planning and crowd control.
@@Elizabeth-n3v2u Definitely a trend here in the south. Most Speedways are like this given the 12 year stretch of people not going to races like they used to. Charlotte removed almost 60,000 seats because of low attendance.
Sheep mentality as you call it is a survival instinct. In sheep anyway. Human mentality would be more apt. I mean, these people believe in god. 🤦♀️
I was watching the race on TV and didn’t know about any of this. I am aware the reason they do this is in case of lightning but surely there’s a better, more organized way to get people to safety. Maybe “boarding zones” like they have on airplanes.
I'm in the UK. During Covid, the government reduced the hours that our supermarkets could open, and forced smaller shops to close. So instead of spreading the shopping across 24 hours, more intense crowds of people had to queue together and shop together within the reduced hours. The obvious result was simply to make the supermarkets MORE crowded. This was when I realised that the government's supposed 'prevention' strategies were nothing of the sort, and instead just an exercise in unthinking, blind compliance.
Well, the idea was the lane system, a one way trip around the main aisles, and then you could branch off to get to the aisle you wanted.
Of course, not only did nobody actually adhere to those rules, but there was nobody or no structure to enforce it bar a pathetic decal marked on the floor, with arrows and lines like road markings that were a mere suggestion to most people
Wait until you here that in the US and some other nations, such mandates have been deemed illegal, unconstitutional,arbitrary, oppressive and unnecessary. Good Lord..Fauci the douche admitted himself the 6 foot rule never had any scientific basis. And regardless of all that. ...only a moron would try to stop the spread of a disease sooooo dangerous it was the next coming of the Bubonic Plague 😏 by arbitrarily closing( again now ruled to have been illegally ) select businesses ...and not expecting the general public to accumulate ..no matter the size of the structure...into what businesses were "" allowed" to remain open. It was the stupidest thing I nay have ever witnessed. And people fell hand over foot for it.
I look back at all the packed concerts I attended back in my younger days and I’m very thankful to have lived through them. I’m now 64 years old and I rarely attend a concert but when I do I always look for an exit or another way out just in case things go terribly bad.
I never liked a close crowd; as a small child, I would explain, "They're breathing my air!" Adults didn't know whether I was describing mild agoraphobia (more likely, enochloohobia) or if I really was experiencing mild suffocation. As I grew up, I continued to be very uncomfortable in crowds or close clots of people. I would risk missing lunch in school to avoid the the lunch line (unless it was monitored well) and crowding around the tables and room. I have learned to minimize the phobia symptoms by avoidance, some cognitive measures, and always planning escape routes and reaction scenarios. I don't think it's a clinical phobia with me, merely a distrust of crowd/mob behavior.
Wow, how devastating! May all that passed RIP. I never heard of this incident before. I’m always learning something new on this channel.
A similar thing happed in WWII when a load of people tried to get into Bethnal Green underground station being used as an air raid shelter, more civvies died that day than in any other air raid.
173 were killed including 62 children with over 60 injured, a very sad day.
If only Booker T. Washington could speak now……..Those are all extremely important points that need to be made nowadays. It’s strange how we advance so much in some areas, and wind up going so far backwards in others 🤷🏻♂️
Almost like affirmative action was counterproductive just like Thomas Sowell said it would be. Nah, that can’t be it. We just need more of it.
Lmao the dude above is trying to push his Agenda. It's not affirmative action, quit blaming every Black Person you see in University as some type of Affirmative Action hire. Pick up your bootstraps, AA was banned last year even though it favored mostly White Students. But please, let's hear you're victim mentality more 🤡🤡🤡
@@The20thHijacker stop being racist
The moment I heard dooes being mentioned and thousands of people in the building, One word came to mind Instantly...
Crush
Discernment and Wisdom are EVERYTHING…. Thank you for sharing, I love learning about history
This automatically reminds me of the Hillsborough stadium disaster.
I had to experience the pictures live on TV - as an 11-year-old at the time.
I didn't realize what actually happened there until at some point the bodies were covered with blankets.
My father, with whom I watched the game, didn't say a word, but apparently he only realized what was happening when the lifeless bodies were covered, too.
Since then, I don't really panic when there are crowds, but I prefer to stay on the edge - especially when I go to football games.
I'm either there as early as possible so that I can be one of the first into the stadium, or I'd rather be 5 minutes late than join the crowd.
Choking alive and being crushed to death - a horrible death that you wouldn't wish on anyone.
R.i.P. 115
R.i.P. 96
I've lived in Alabama my entire life, and I've never heard of this. I live 30 minutes south of Birmingham. I go there frequently.
Random thought: Radio and TV may have saved lives by allowing large numbers of people to hear important speakers in their own homes rather than in crowded public spaces.
When my mother was a teenager in NYC back in the day, she attended the NYE celebration in Times Square. She was nearly crushed to death upon leaving. She never went again. To this day, I avoid crowds of that sort like the plague!!!
This reminds me of the Station fire in Rhode Island. That was a real fire, so unfortunately many of the people crushed together and could not move died of fire related injuries. When I was young and started hearing about these crushes, I did not understand. The first time I had heard of one was when I was 9 or 10--The Who concert tragedy. A few years later when I was in my teens, one of the soccer stadiums in UK had several dozens (hundreds?) of deaths. I recall seeing it on the news and thinking, "Just get up!" It wasn't until later that I understood that it is not quite that easy, or people wouldn't really be dying en masse in the mass crushes.
I thought of the same thing, the Station Nightclub. Poor design of the main entrance contributed to the fatalities there. I think there is something in the fire codes that dictate 50% of the capacity has to be factored into the design of the main entrance because, in an emergency, most people will try to leave the way they came in, even if there is another emergency exit closer to them.
This event was very sad and it makes us lose faith in how people treat each other. It's unfortunate that things will never improve.
This is why I avoid big crowds indoors. Well not this specific incident, but crowd rush & crush incidents are a bit too common 🤷
They're extremely rare.
The last line of this doco is very strange. Crowd crush events are almost as common as nightclub fires world wide.
Having studied several of these events, it seems to me that we don't know enough about how bodies get tangled in these crushes. It is vitally important that such tragic events are documented in great detail, because I cannot see how one could recreate such a crush without putting live subject in peril.
We really need to understand how these crushes build up, because rescuing people quickly is vital. If we learn how to map piles of dead and dying people it may be possible to save more of them.
In particular, we may be able to develop a technique for removing a stuck person. I doubt that there will be a 'key log' that will unlock the pile, but there may be a 'recovery position' that makes it easier to pull someone out.
That one woman who asked the man to put her hair up for her 😢 I'm glad it brought her comfort and calmed her while she was rescued.
You sound like your 3 years old 🤦🏻♂️
@@CutmeMickCool 👍🏼 Thank you for sharing that thought with the class
Thanks!
You're very welcome!
I’ve always been very careful about what buildings or events I attend because of how crowds can react. I saw one event when I was in school and I’ll never risk going into a crowded environment. People panic and then there’s no talking to them.
My most traumatic event like this happened at Lollapalooza in August 1991, Reston, VA. I was in a pressed crowd some 30-40 yards from center stage waiting for Nine Inch Nails to take the stage. When NIN started the first notes of opening song the crowd surged and I was suddenly 3 to 4 people from the barrier at center stage, but something wasn't right. There was a mass of people under the feet of everyone some 10-15 yards from the barrier out. The band continued to play while we all worked to free everyone. I lifted a girl over the barrier for security to take her to first aid/paramedics. She was limp. I don't know what her fate was.
The best way I can describe the push is: if you've ever been wading down the shore and a large breaking wave tumbles you. Except the wave was bodies. And you either tumble down to the bottom or scramble to get your head above the surface. I was a lean young man at the time, so I was lucky to not get crushed. Instinct had me scrambling up, not forward or pressing back.
Since that event, and similar concert events/public spectacles after, I've developed a rather intense claustrophobia. I have nightmares where I'm either trampled and crushed or I'm trampling and crushing other people...sometimes it's loved ones.
Thanks for letting me share this.
I didn’t know about this event, over 100 people dying in the crush is just scary. Plus I can’t imagine the horrified feeling of being next to a person that died and you’re next to it.
Its a beautiful building and although crowded and hot it seemed like a wonderful event. Reminds me of the connecuit circus tent fire, or the great white concert fire, or the grand opening of the Brooklyn bridge disaster. Some are fires but many are caused by panic alone. Frantic excitement or panic in crowded situations can kill. It kind of compounds with the me first or the fear of death survival instincts.
So many tragedies of this nature occur because people aren't aware of all the exits from a building. It's human nature when panic takes hold to attempt to leave by whatever route you used to enter. Take a little time and look for the quickest and easiest way out if there's an emergency.
I'm from Alabama, and actually live in Birmingham and have never heard of this. It's awful!! Wow... Thanks for sharing
I've seen exist door at the Louvre in Paris chained and locked. Took me about a half hour to get to fresh air.
Wow! My grandma was only 5 months old when this happened! No wonder I never heard of this! She obviously wouldn't be reading the newspapers back then!! LOL!! This is just horrible. What a very sad thing to come out of such a positive speech! I wish today we had speakers like Booker. He was powerful and changed so many lives for the better. A great man indeed!
Wonder what happened to the 2 people who were involved in the fight and the person who shouted about the fight and the people thought there was a fire and caused the panic? I can't find an answer online.
Did they die along with the others? Were the 2 people fighting arrested? Did the person who shout spend the rest of their life living in guilt?
What's the betting it was Benny? Or Amy Turtle?
I find it hard to understand how this happens. I know it does but when I first heard about it I couldn't get my head around it. Sounds like an horrific way to go.