Eleven people injured in crowd crush after a Beyoncé concert. How this happens, and how to stay safe.
Police reported that a woman had screamed and started running for an unknown reason in the Vine City Station, which caused people to panic and rush down the escalator to get to the train platform, a spokesperson for MARTA, Atlanta's transportation agency, said in an email to Yahoo. The incident took place after midnight when people were leaving Mercedes-Benz Stadium after the final performance of Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour.
As people ran down the escalator, it briefly sped up before abruptly stopping, causing people to fall forward on top of each other.
Ten people were taken to the hospital, including one person who broke their ankle, the MARTA spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo. The spokesperson said that the escalator has since been blocked off and that MARTA and the escalator's manufacturer will investigate the incident.
So-called crowd crushes are dangerous and even potentially fatal events that occur when a large group of people is stuck in a confined area and people start to panic, trying to get out.
A number of high-profile fatal crowd crush incidents have made headlines in recent years, including the 2021 Astroworld Festival in Houston, where 10 victims, including a 9-year-old boy, died after 50,000 people ran toward the stage during rapper Travis Scott's performance. Another recent crowd crush incident happened in South Korea in 2022, when a horde of people was crammed into a small alleyway during a Halloween party in Seoul. More than 150 people died in the tragic event.
G. Keith Still, a visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk, has studied crowd dynamics for the last 30 years and is an author at the Global Crowd Management Alliance (GCMA), an organization dedicated to advancing crowd management and security services. He spoke to Yahoo about how crowd crushes happen and what people can do to protect themselves if they end up in one.
What causes a crowd crush?
Crowd crushes are 'a situation where people fill a space beyond safe limits, making it difficult for individuals to breathe or move freely,' according to GCMA. They are caused by 'overcrowding' and 'poor infrastructure or ineffective communication.'
The MARTA crowd crush was caused by a 'cascade reaction,' Still said, which is 'like dominoes falling over.' One woman screamed and started running, so the group around her started running down the escalator, even if they didn't know what was happening.
'People running away from a perceived threat, whether it's real or imaginary or a false alarm, it's still a very logical, rational thing to do,' he said.
The Astroworld Festival incident, on the other hand, was caused by packing more people into a fenced-off section than could safely fit within that space, according to Still.
How do crowd crushes become fatal?
In crowd crushes, Still said, people are packed together so tightly that they start to lose the ability to move their limbs independently and struggle to breathe properly. This is why people tend to suffocate, even if they're standing.
'In these environments, you only have a few minutes to get people out before they become restricted in breathing,' Still explained. 'It's about six minutes before constrictive asphyxia sets in — suffocation.'
He added that in many tight spaces packed with large crowds, six minutes is often not enough time for people to remove themselves or for rescuers to try to pull people out.
How to stay safe
If you find yourself in a large gathering or a situation where you're worried about a potential crowd crush, Still said it's helpful to know where all exits are and to stay on the outskirts of the space. He said it's important to assess the environment and envision what you would do to get out of the area if something happened.
'Just a moment to contemplate as you're entering the venue makes you feel a lot more aware of your surroundings,' he said.
Still also advised organizers and venues to keep admission for events below maximum capacity and to have multiple entrances and exits to ensure easy flow in and out of the space.
If, as was the case in Atlanta this week, you are in a large crowd and hear someone scream or otherwise have reason to believe there is a threat, Still urges remaining calm and assessing the situation before giving into the natural instinct to run.
He recommended asking yourself these questions: 'What triggered this? Was it a scream? Was it a shout? Is it just everybody else reacting?'
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that if you do find yourself in a crowd crush, you should not try to resist the force of the crowd, but try to carefully work your way to the outskirts of the group. The CDC recommends keeping your hands in front of your chest 'like a boxer,' and to try remaining on your feet as long as you can. If you do fall, you should try to protect yourself by curling into a ball rather than lying flat.
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