The Haj and massive crowds
Today I was reading on Yahoo! News about the death and injuries confirmed from the Haj. It reported 345 deaths and an additional 289 in hospitals for injuries. The deaths were reported as resulting from people in the crowds crushing each other to death. That's fearsome.
But many years ago, I felt close to that when I was leaving a Promise Keepers' Convention in either Baltimore or Washington, D.C. [I forget which city it was.] But everybody was leaving the arena at the same time with most heading towards the nearest escalators for the subway system. As we had to narrow for entering the escalators, I just about had the breath crushed out of me. And you could not stop moving; it was skin to skin people. That was scary; I've never been in such a crowd since.
But many years ago, I felt close to that when I was leaving a Promise Keepers' Convention in either Baltimore or Washington, D.C. [I forget which city it was.] But everybody was leaving the arena at the same time with most heading towards the nearest escalators for the subway system. As we had to narrow for entering the escalators, I just about had the breath crushed out of me. And you could not stop moving; it was skin to skin people. That was scary; I've never been in such a crowd since.
posted by Tim Rice | 1/12/2006 12:01:00 PM
2 Comments:
It's awful and it happens every year. When you get 2 million people together in such a small space, I suppose it is bound to happen. A lot more deaths than normal this year though.
I think you're right, san nakji. Crowd control is difficult.
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