When the Wii came out in 2006, someone camped in a tent on the side of the Best Buy for 5 days. I showed up at 5am for the 9am opening. The camper had a notebook and took names of people that showed up. Surprisingly everyone respected that person's list 100%. They announced at 8am that they had 84 consoles and people that showed up after the limit left peacefully. Everyone else formed an orderly line when it was near opening time, by asking others the number they were given by this random camper. People also shared water and sodas with their neighbors in line

The key to good crowd control is partying with a strong tank that knows when to taunt or use his other abilities while as a dps you're focusing your fire correctly.

I feel that a simplified (even further) variant of this should be taught at schools, so that in a generation or two, enough people know about the problem to mitigate it. If everyone were patient/understanding enough, that pushing makes things worse, rather than better, even for themselves no pressure would build up..

As my father taught me: "Avoid crowds. The bigger the worse. Crowd are not made by single persons, they're made by a lot of people, and thus can't be reasoned with".

As a German, when I hear crowd crushes I'll always be reminded of the 2010 Loveparade desaster with 650 people injured (some quite severely) and 21 people dying from being crushed in a narrow tunnel that was the sole entry AND exit to the festival, because the venue was full and people wanted to get in.

One of the things I love about concerts is a crowd that's aware of these risks. You often hear people shout "BACK THE F*** UP" at punk shows, or coordinate to shove backwards to ensure there's space to breathe at the front. It's a weird kind of self-knowledge that I'm sure has saved lives, though of course it only does so much without good crowd planning and security.

This was incredibly fascinating to learn about. I was in a crowd crush scenario a couple years ago at a concert. It got to "shock wave" density but I've always looked back on that memory fondly. I remember feeling weightless as we all swayed collectively to the music. Looking back at it now, that situation was way more dangerous then I knew and I wouldn’t be surprised if some people had gotten hurt or at the very least suffocated a bit.

I have been working in organizing Hajj crowds since 2010 until now, and let me tell you the amount of work and organization is mind-blowing, and it is a science in itself. The authorities are now working to include artificial intelligence technology to manage crowds, starting next year every pilgrim will wear an electronic bracelet that includes all his personal and health information. Also, through an electronic application, the pilgrim will receive instructions on which way to take, when, where and how to move! This is important because we plan to receive more pilgrims in the coming years.

Hey, a Wendover video about exactly my job! I'm an engineer specialized in designing/planning busy spaces like these, and a in fact a few I worked on were in the video :). Really good overall, I just want to add a couple points: - You said that in a crush scenario the crowd starts to be ruled "by something similar to fluid dynamics" - it's not "like" that's exactly what's happening, the crowd is basically a bunch of water balloons squished together. - The main sign to look out for: if it feels or looks like everyone is moving as one (imagine a crowded wave pool at the waterpark) then it's becoming dangerous. - If you're inside a crush and can't escape, the safest thing to do is to brace your hands against yourself and stick out your elbows. Finally, to quickly summarize how planning solves this kind of thing: it's a lot like designing a car to keep you safe in a crash. You're not going to predict where or why the crush will occur. All you can do is design crumple zones to give the energy somewhere to go, by building doors/walls/fences that will break when pushed enough and not letting people completely surround the thing they want (which is what makes the Hajj so dangerous).

My dad was at that concert in Cincinnati. He told me it was cold that day but because of the crowd it felt like summer from the body heat of everyone there. He also said he was in the back and everyone was shoulder to shoulder, people would sway back and forth like a wave and you couldn't do anything except move with it, the animation does a great job of showing this. Apparently the rush happened because The Who started their stage testing, and everyone assumed that the concert had started which led to everyone trying to make it inside.

5:07 I like how the researchers observed all that. Like people in despair and distress and some guy stands next to them being like: Huh, interesting.

I was part of a human stampede one time. It was super scary. It really was like fluid dynamics; I felt like I was just part of a single consciousness made up of hundreds of people.

The identity point I think perfectly describes how British people act towards each other on vacation. At home surrounded by other Brits, we barely acknowledge strangers and keep to ourselves but as soon as we are on vacation, anyone British in your hotel you immediately strike up conversation with cus there’s this sense of camaraderie

Realizing that crowds are fluids actually let me regain control once during a music festival. I was stuck in the crowd, impossible to move, waves running through the masses, but I kind of saw the dynamics at play. And by simply angling my body and shoulders I could let the waves push me through the masses, not being able to move out of my own power but directing the power the pressure waves excerted on my body. Once I figured that method out I reached the less dense parts of the crowd quite fast.

I was a USAHockey Referee, and one of the classes/presentations was on crowd control. It was interesting to hear the breakdown of a team, the teams, and the fans as crowds to manage. That was the first time I learned crowd control has been studied for centuries. The other interesting point, was how a coach, in an elevated position standing behind his players was very similar to a leader behind a wall guarded by soldiers.

I really appreciate that you include citations, and reassuring to see JSTOR links. In a click bait and sensational-heavy landscape, finding great content that resists those sensational trends is a relief.

I was at a P!ATD concert and it was impressive to me that they had several moments where they told EVERYONE to take some big steps back. They actually paid attention.

I'm glad that you pointed out that it isn't necessarily any one individual's fault, but a design issue. I am a programmer, and I see design issues passed off all the time as "user error", including events like the false nuclear launch alert in Hawaii. The test and real alert options were poorly labeled, and there was no "are you sure" message. All it took was a single, simple mis-click to trigger a real alert instead of a test. It seem like one of the main problems with crush events comes from the people in the back not realizing that their small push is being compounded and hurting someone in the front of the crowd. A concept that we try to use at work is "put the pain on the people causing the problem". We try to design our software so that if someone does their job poorly, that the problems come back to them, rather than be passed downstream to someone else. It almost seems like crowd control needs security officers near the back of the crowd that can work on preventing those in the back from pushing if the crowd density gets high enough at the front.

I like the informative video, but the title makes no sense. I have waited for the whole video to learn on HOW to control a crowd, but only got to learn about the history of crowd incidents and response. Really disappointing in that regard.

about 10 years ago I went to Shanghai for the world expo, where the daily visitor entrance was about 300,000 people. The crowd control was top notch. One of the entrances I used was a bridge about 15m wide, which one would think would be a horrific location for a crowd crush. Everyone had to go through a security scanner and a bag inspection, which could have been a major pinch point. Instead of just a series of booths plainly stretched across the width of the bridge, they staggered the security booths with controlling lanes diverting entrants. So instead of maybe 10 security stations, their solution enabled them to have over 30 booths stretching down the length of the bridge. The booths weren't in just a single long diagonal line either, you could walk in between 2 booths to get to another lane division to reach another booth further down. Even during highest traffic period you never saw more than 15-20 people at each station. I marvelled at the thinking that went into the layout. Now once you were in the park, that was a whole different matter. People queued for hours to enter pavilions and queue jumping was rife.

I think there's a huge 3rd factor here you didn't specify: NOT KNOWING IT'S AN EMERGENCY. When there's a fire, everyone is "Oh damn! fire!" and is on high alert, mindful of people in pain, etc. When you're in the back of a crowd trying to move up to get game consoles, you have no idea you're causing harm or anything bad is happening, so there's no particular reason to even stop and think about it.

As an Indonesian, I really appreciate when you mentioned that the cause of death in Kanjuruhan tragedy is mainly because of the crowd fleeing from the tear gas, not by the riot itself. Because, although all of independent and international journalist & investigators said so, but those authorized institution always stated otherwise, even without any supporting evidence.

Interesting how shared identity defines the level of crowd cooperativeness. It's even more interesting how increased competitiveness led to more fatal scenarios. Almost as if the more competitive the scenario, the less people identify with others.

Some years back I was in Washington DC while their hockey team was in the stanley cup and I went to the street outside the stadium to watch the game (that was in another city) on the giant screen outside. During the game there was plenty of room on the streets, but after it was over everyone tried to leave and it turned into chaos. At one point I was squished between the people around me very tightly and my feet were lifted just above the ground and I was carried by the crowd probably 20 feet before I was able to feel the ground again.

That plane anecdote is so spot on. One time a train I was on malfunctioned. We were waiting for a long period of time before the announcement to disembark was made. I was instantly able to find one other person who was going to the same place as me to split an uber. Another person overheard and asked to join, everyone was super friendly and I didn't even think about the fact that if the train hadn't malfunctioned we never would have spoken a word to each other.

That plane anecdote is so spot on

I blogged about getting crushed by the exiting crowd after President Obama’s inauguration in DC. It was terrifying. It was also a design issue; in this case, limited exit routes pushed everyone to one exit and the combined law enforcement agencies completely underestimated how many people would show up to that historic event.

This is one of the only public videos on crowd crush that exists. And it’s honest. About time.

This video might save a life some day. I've found myself in crowd situations that left me on the verge of panic. Fortunately, in those instances I was able to sense real danger early and leave as the back pressure started to build. In the early stages the crowd will still permit your retreat. LEAVE! Once things get tight nobody can move to allow your escape.

When the choke point moved back and caused 2400 to die heading to the Hajj, that feels weirdly familiar to anyone who has tried to fix traffic in Cities Skylines. You fixed one choke point, but now it just reveals the next bottle neck. Except crowd control planners find that out with body bags instead of red areas on a screen.

I've actually been in a crush like this in person. Nurburgring after an F1 race they made an announcement that buses would take any willing visitors to ride down the track in person. They expected 200-300 people to show up, but instead it was around 5,000 people. There was a giant 3 lane roundabout where the pickup point was. Only 3 buses would show up on rotation to take people. Each bus holds around 50 people so 150 per rotation could get on. There was no security in place, no security rails, or indication where to stand so everyone just created a mass around this roundabout. As soon as the buses would pull in everyone started rushing to get to the bus doors. My father being a rather confident and sometimes rude tall man at 7foot tall had my brother and me (14 and 16 years old at the time) stand at the outskirts of the crowd as we had a better view and it was starting to rain and we could be under an awning of a nearby building. for the first two waves of busses we just stayed under the awning and watched people get on buses and it wasn't anything too roudy. By the time the second bus came it started getting a little pushy in the crowd. Then by the time the third bus came everyone was realizing they would have no chance to see the track as it was taking about 30minutes per rotation and getting dark fast. Everyone including my dad decided this was the time to try to make it. He told me and my brother to follow him as he used his arms to forcefully split the crowd in a swimming motion in front of him and make his way from the back of the crowd to the front bus doors. My brother was behind him and surprisingly they both made it as the bus was about half-full, I kept getting pulled back into the crowd as the people closed off the gap between me and my family. I watched as people including elderly and children where getting crushed and screaming and I had also been crushed a few times and received many elbows to the ribs. I watched as an old man was accidentally elbowed to the head and fell down and even stepped on because the crowd was being unwillingly pushed closer together by the outer layer of people pushing in. Me and another guy tried to help the old man up but were pushed away from him by the waves of pressure from the crowd rushing inward. I was then somehow was able to keep pushing through the crowd into the gap my father made behind him as I didn't want to get left behind, especially in this insane crowd. I was luckily able to squeeze through and was the last person to make it on the bus. It didn't feel good doing that but there's a certain desperation and adrenaline rush that I feel many including myself had in this moment. Quite a few injuries and tons of ambulances showed up and they cancelled the event after that. Crazy to witness, and a traumatically poor crowd control planning.

Having an up inclining ground might help since it'll not allow humans at the back as effectively push ahead & most will have a natural tendency to fall back rather than ahead. Also, maybe some elevated breaks like up & down stair structure row might help to create breaks inhibiting the transfer of energy from the back all the way to the front. It'll make them into groups. I think there's additional factor that we're missing- emotions. Those who are going to a concert, sports, purchasing something for themselves are quite excited, emotionally high. I wonder if there's any difference between the crowds going to music concerts led by different kinds of humans (excitement arousing vs calm celebs)/genre. I think slow, maybe sad music concerts might have less of such happenings. Has anyone checked?

Thanks for the explanation 👍I once encountered a situation at a small concert attended by around 7.000 people. When leaving the concert hall through a corridor and a very small exit, (the concert took place in a repurposed school gym) a pushing crowd developed behind me. This pushing back and forth happened several times. Eventually, I and a group of individuals nearby linked arms and created a makeshift barrier with our bodies. We managed to lessen the movement and as more people joined us and started shouting to those in the rear to wait, the crowd calmed down again and left organized afterwards. That was a scary experience, I can't imagine how forceful a larger crowd can become.

My PhD research was on simulating crowds, and I must say that this is a really well researched video. The content itself is put together so well.

Went to Radiohead in New Orleans back in 2017. Had GA SRO Floor tickets. My wife, daughter, and I got there very early to wait out the day. We were among the first dozen or so lined up. The fandom had their own way of managing the crowd rush. You get there early and check in and an early bird superfan marked you on a list and numbered your hand. Then you could wander around for a little while until the afternoon when everybody started lining up for the show. Security at the venue even agreed with the system when some very late arrivers tried to bully their way up to the front of the line. Everybody lined up in hand number order. Doors opened. Then you made your way to the floor to get as close to the stage as you could. Worked really well

As a Swedish citizen the first example of the people refusing to form a line feels so absurd, it's something that's deeply ingrained in our culture here

As a Cincinnati native, I knew it was only a matter of time before the Who Concert was mentioned. I grew up hearing about that event (I think my parents may have actually been there) and so knew about the horrors of crowd crushes since I was pretty young. Even to this day, at least of the folks around my parent's age, unassigned seating is looked at with apprehension in the city.

I was in the middle of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, and the conclusions spoken in this video are very accurate. When the police dispersed the crowd, the yells of, "DO NOT RUN!" from the crowd, despite being trapped between a hail of rubber bullets/shotgun beanbags and a cloud of tear gas that was fired over our heads, was the only thing that saved people from injury. The police created a situation that could have been pure panic, but the civilians in the streets were the ones who showed restraint and allowed everyone to escape safely.

I am reminded of the 2022 Korean Itaewon tragedy of the Halloween Crowd Crush... It was really awful. A lot of youngsters fainted and got stepped on as they slowly passed away. I sympathize with the parents that lost their sons or daughters that night...

One of the worst incidents like this happened in my home country - germany - there was a parade called "love parade", which was a really big event until the incident in 2010 - there was only one main entry/exit which also functioned as main emergency exit. As there was starting panic on the festival area people started fleeing whilst others still tried to enter - they met in the entry-/exit-tunnel and 21 died and 652 died. Since then this event doesn't get organized anymore.

I started attending rugby games at Cape Town Stadium this year. I didn't really understand why security would force us to use the gates close to our section. In my mind, I thought I could just walk to the section once I was inside the yard (the area surrounding but still within the stadium complex). This video helped me understand the significance of what initially seemed like a minor, unnecessary inconvenience. It also made me appreciate the good design of Cape Town Stadium. For example, after you pass through the gates, you encounter a huge open space and only have to walk a few meters before reaching the stadium itself. The layout allows for fairly easy movement, even when people are standing around on a big match day.

Worked in the Carnival business for more then a decade and was taught "if you don't plan crowd control, the crowd controls your event" Spent many hours seeing how it was done in both a security way and a sell to customers way. Started to see how it is planned for in cities with transit, rail and roadways thou never for enough volume. The physiology behind the influences to human nature are amazing to see in action.

We have a massive rock festival in my town that I go to every year. It's always impressive 1.) how many people come, 2.) the chosen design of the barricades, such as aisles and diverters, and 3.) just HOW MUCH security is there. Looking back, it makes sense that there are aisles of empty space barricaded off up and down the crowds. It helps divert flow and get rid of divers and crushed people. I never really though about that. And like of course there's gonna be a lot of security at a 150k+ plus event, but during the bigger names, if feels like there's 1 security for every 7 or 8 people. So much security. And there's exit signs EVERYWHERE. I guess it really does take a lot of planning to design good traffic flow w/out death

This is why I bob along with crowds even if im trying to get somewhere. Treating yourself as a part of the crowd means no one has to move much to get out of your way.

I felt a little prouder to be a human during the first 1/3rd of the video and the info you were covering. In truly shared and horrible moments, people help each other. The largest crowds work together and I just find that amazing.

I think two other reasons disasters don't trigger crowd crushes are that they push people away rather than towards, and trigger concern for the safety of oneself and others. Away rather than towards is fairly intuitive, since moving away from a concern will naturally spread the group out unless funneled through choke points. As for conern for safety, when you're at the back of a crowd trying to get into a desirable area you're just thinking about where you want to be, not about how the crowd might be dangerous to people further in who are compressed by the mass of bodies, but when you are in a burning building awareness of the fact that the situation is dangerous for everyone present is at the forefront of your mind so you will naturally tend to be more aware of how your actions might further endanger others.

I was in a recent crowd incident at my school. We were waiting for the professor to come, and we (15-20) people all stuck together in the door. We easily blew past 5 people per square meter so really, nobody could move. Unfortunately, me and this other guy named Matias were the core of the crowd, and when they saw the professor coming we went to the ground while everyone else dipped. We almost got caught and sanctioned.

Fluid dynamic is EXACTLY what it is!!!! I've been in 2 scary crowds. One was a delayed concert and people getting rowdy, the other was a horrific design of having 2 tiny exits. In the concert the crowd started swaying, people fell to the ground and those around tried forming bubbles to provide enough room to get them up. The other event had 40,000+ people exiting an event at 2 exits, each of which had 2 gates wide enough for 1 person at a time. After a long day of everyone drinking in the sun! The crowd started trying to push over fences, some were trying to climb fences. We found a spot off to the side and waited till the crowd thinned. I was sure they were going to riot.

I have a friend who is the director of operations for a major music festival brand and he was telling me about the steps they have to take to try and minimize crowd crush, and how they have to make various contingency plans based on crowd psychology. It's crazy the amount of planning and effort that goes into crowd management (because at the end of the day, if the crowd doesn't want to be controlled, then they can't be controlled).

the crowd pressure phenomenon is fascinating and teaches you physics of pressure between molecules, same concept, bouncing aruond pushing the one next to them with no space to move

I have no idea why this was recommended... but man, this was an awesome video, and I'm glad I watched it to completion.

During the 25th World Scout Jamboree, they had 50,000 participants split into four entrances, each entering through a 2 person wide sidewalk on a bridge. Due to the amount of ambulances that night, they had the road on the bridge closed off. Whats even weirder is they only had one side of the bridge open. Luckily, nothing majored happen. There was pushing from the back, but everybody remained civilized. It took us just under 2 hours to walk half a kilometre. In my area, everybody stayed in line. Nobody was told to stay in line, but we filled up as wide as the road. Honestly, I had way more of an experience standing in line, than actually attending the opening ceremony.

I see this in public transit every day. Going onboard any crowded commuter train (which has nonassigned seating) always has some kind of hostility in the air between the travellers, because everyone is at odds with each other to find a seat before they're all taken. Even worse with a replacement bus - now it's a battle for the seats AND everyone is angry at the extra hassle.

One thing I noticed in almost all of those incidents is that there was only security at the front of the crowd, not dispersed through it, where with a little communication they could disperse the crowd and back it up.

when i think of crowd crushes, I think of itaewon... it's scary... people sufficating, dying whilst still standing... you cannot move and only move with the crowd, I remeb=mber going into a gym, there was this little system that makes sure only one person goes in with a code, my sister went in and i saw staff and we're not supposed to have 2 in 1, so i tried to quickly go in, the little thing designed for just a single person in and already it was squashed, scary and yeah... My experience is just with one other person, no where near the level of these crowds. in the halloween itaewon incident, it was so so avoidable too, all of these are...

I lived on a road from Leppings Lane in Hillsborough in 1989. The 97 dead were caused by the crowd dynamics you described but dozens were saved by fellow Liverpool fans pulling them out of the cage and Forest fans running across the pitch to offer help and using advertising hoardings as stretchers

I've been to concerts before that were general admission and when someone fainted in the middle of the crowd the singer/band noticed, stopped everything, and told medical staff where to find the person while also alerting everyone to give room to the person and make a path for staff to get through. Each time this has happened it took less than two minutes for the rest of the audience to move aside. And then once the person was helped the audience would just slowly shuffle back to where they were previously, without people thinking "this is my chance to push closer" and causing a crush. Just pure cooperation and order. Mind you this was always at venues that only held at most a few hundred so not those huge numbers you see at festivals where it's a little harder to maintain control. Also it requires musicians to actually pay attention and to actually care about what's happening in the crowd since they have the best vantage point.

With your citation of new research on crowd psychology questioning the idea that people become dehumanized parts of a collective in a crowd, it'd be interesting to revisit your riot control video that seems to claim that exact thing, or it'd be similarly interesting to see something on why might riots still happen according to this research!

Loved it. best explanation. just this year, I had helped saving 2 women near Kabaa from a crowd collapse. There was a feeling of competition as well as cooperation both.

My father was at the 79' who show when he was in highschool. He would talk about crowd control tactics anytime classic rock came on the radio. It's so nice to find a video that goes into more detail than he ever could

Moshpitting is an interesting case study. People literally join a pit to push each other around and act chaotically yet, in my experience, pits are some of the most collegial spaces. There's a sense of shares responsibility since this madness is only fun if you know you won't get seriously hurt or lose something, and if you can exit at any time.

I loved the summation: "As competitiveness goes up, cooperativeness goes down." I think this is a perfectly fair assesment of our entire society and especially our economic model.

The best crowd control I've seen is in boarding school lunch line. One man and a belt.

3:32 "They'll even share food" said as if it was the most insane thing ever.

If anyone is interested in knowing more about the subject and understands a bit of French, there's an amazing French youtuber called Fouloscopie that carefully explains how crowds work (crowd movement, dangers and how to prevent them, group effects and biases, ...). He also regularly organizes real-life experiments to demonstrate theories. He's a PhD researcher in this (pretty unusual) field and his videos are very well made, I strongly recommend it !

In Poland we have a great festival: PolAndRock where the organisers used instead of physycal bariers, two or three rows of volounteers that stand shoulder to shoulder, and because of that, they can react to the crowds behaviour. When people push forward during an intense song, the volounteers push back alongsite the crowd, ans when the song ends they go back to their starting position. It is great because if someone is injured or just wants to leave, they are free to do so safely. Only once in the history of the festival, the Prodigy managers demanded that they barriers must be installed, and it resulted in at least couple dozen faintings.

As an ethiopian, I appreciate you mentioning the cause of death in 2016 Ethiopian protest. I remember people were running from police tear gas and bullets, which killed most of them.

Fun fact about a not fun situation finneytown (a school district inside of Cincinnati) named on of their 4 houses after the 3 of the kids went to finneytown and died in that concert it’s nice to know that some of these names are not forgotten but actually honored (the house is called PEM it’s a acronym for their last names)

thank you for including clips from the Seoul halloween crush. I know it probably wasnt discussed in detail in the video because it is SO recent and the research probably isnt widely available in the US yet, but its good to still see the event included and recognized.

Can relate to that trapped passenger story - Got stuck overnight in a foreign country and I a genuinely wonderful day of bonding with people I would never meet before. From no discussion, to sharing tips and stories, jokes and advice... then we all land and just become travellers again.

When I was still in middle school, a fire broke out in the building. The evacuation DID evolve into a mindless, disorderly panic. People were pushing others out of the way, jumping/crawling over furniture. I personally got hit with a table pushed away by someone else.

I experienced those motion waves myself during the love parade in germany 2010. Just like the doors in the first example a climbable part of a wall was seen as the sole exit point for a huge mass and took 21 lives. About 10 minutes before people died i was at their exact spot and then bailed the situation through going sideways instead of forward or backwards. Unfortunatly no responsible person was ever punished. 21 people killed by brezel stands, hoardings and the organizers who wished to have a vip entry gate elsewhere (all non-vip had to go through the same tunnel for entry and exit). The police evacuated via predefined exit routes where the whole mismanagement got to me. The area that would have been available for all those people was gigantic. If they just would have used less hoarding and account for people leaving while others stil arrive throug using different routes noone would have died.

It's surprising to see that the 1989 Hillsborough disaster was not mentioned during this documentary considering it's relevancy. The crowd were footballs fans, from the same team, fleeing from a stand that had fallen without police intervention exacerbating the situation.

One thing I learned from Lollapolloza in 2013 is that big groups of people move like water and will follow the path of least resistance when moving. A lot of people there, kinda scary in general being in a group of that many people.

Us introverts already have the solution. Don’t go in crowds.

I think there is a much simpler explanation that shouldn't be overlooked. In your black friday example, the crowd is pushing in towards the middle, in evacuation situations the crowd is pushing out into (usually) mostly open air. I get all the various psychology and design stuff you went through, but to me the in/out dynamic is a fundamental difference between the two scenarios. Where the crowd is pushing towards is the biggest factor. If the crowd is trying to move to a place that is inside of the crowd, bad things can easily happen. If the crowd is trying to move outside of the crowd, safer.

As an avid metal concert attendee, crowd crush isn't just known its a part of it. Everyone knows the danger and is aware of those in front and next to them. Even in intense moments people are always aware when it's time to create space. And work together to create a bubble around someone struggling. We are there for a good time. Not to kill someone. It's easily the most humanity I've witnessed in a mass of people.

You mentioned the January 2023 crush at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Ground. What makes this even more shocking is the fact that 97 died at the same stadium in a major crush in 1989.

In Germany with festivals and concerts with huge crowds, there's wave breaking structures to divy up crowds to make sure people don't like crush each other in a total frenzy...

This is really interesting. I've never before considered that there is a sort of science to crowd control. Reminds me that there are geniuses out there who have given intense study to areas of interest that never would have occurred to me personally. This is why we need more researchers of absolutely every kind imaginable.

As somebody who takes the train home from school every day I can definately relate to the door phenomenom. 100+ people wait for the train. The train has 4 doors and about 30 "elite seats". There are about 20 people trying to get off the train. After they left everybody storms in. If you are at the front good luck surviving the initial push. That's why I always stay back and take a "normal" seat right next to the door

A few years ago I was in Athens with my family and girlfriend. Only myself and my cousin (Greek) are fluent in Greek. We joined in on the sides of a parade, which was going up the side of the Acropolis, along the road which has the Acropolis Museum. The parade turned into a crush, and officials were screaming warnings and orders in Greek. It was absolutely terrifying, because not only did we have to follow difficult to hear instructions, we also had to translate them into English while following them, and while simultaneously staying alert for new instructions and navigating the crowd.

I experienced a feeling like this once. I had to let the crowd move me, I never went back inside a crowd that tight again.

You somehow mentioned Hillsborough without actually talking about the Hillsborough disaster lol

12:28 If you've ever been in a huge packed crowd that's pushing and pulsing, it's a crazy experience. I distinctly remember being at a poorly managed packed concert that was both exciting and frightening... nobody in the front center had any control of where we moved. When the waves came, you were helplessly pushed over at crazy angle that would certainly have resulted in the neighboring person crushing over on top of you, if it weren't for the fact that there was another person on the other side slightly underneath you supporting you. Then it would go the other way, and the person who was just leaning on you would be under you. Intense and absolutely no control.

This is literally the only channel of all the hundreds of channels i watch that advertise nebula that actually gets me to subscribe to it. Fuck you and thank you for selling me this wonderful product 🧡

Once worked a black friday where everyone was let into the store with maps of where all the big items were. Each of those points had security which would allow people to get them when the order came, but not before. Now the items weren't all together in one spot, but spread over everywhere (Walmart) so even though most of what people wanted was electronics, they were getting TVs in the grocery section, laptops in clothing areas, ect. Worked pretty well. There was a little bit of competition at the very beginning, but it soon fell off once the desperate people got their stuff.

Describing Sheffield as 'North of London' gave me a chuckle. I mean you're not wrong, but it doesn't really help much. Kind of like describing Seattle as 'North of Houston'.

Working EMS at the Indy 500, attempting to get an emergency vehicle through that crowd of drunken, high people was a nightmare. We also could rarely use our lights while in view of the drivers so as not to distract them

20:40 what do you mean you didn't have time? This is KZfaq you can upload a 10-hour video. Stop giving these excuses. Just tell us watching on nebula supports me.

I´d like to add to your fantastic research what might have been one of the most impressive crowds in the last year: Argentina´s world cup celebration. The crowds were estimated to be around 4 million people, and yet there was "only" 31 injured (most of them suffering from heatstroke since it was one of the hottest times of the year) and 1 dead (again, the guy was drunk and jumped from a bridge, it was not the result of crowd crushing)

i remember experiencing crowdcrush at a volbeat concert during a festival, when you start noticing it you're already stuck, luckily metalheads are bro's so they crowdsurfed people to the front who wanted to escape can't imagine having to feel the same thing in a chaotic situation

12:28 I experienced this first hand at a slayer concert in 89. The pit was a continuous wave of meat . One moment everyone would be falling together in one direction, the next second the direction would shift. You had to benchpress the guy in front of you standing up so you could draw a breath. The loud pa stacks were making vision challenging. I was basically rag dolled , people getting stuck under the crush.

That plane anecdote is so spot on. That plane anecdote is so spot on.

As an Autistic New Yorker I've spent a huge portion of my life trying to avoid crowds. I only went to my first stadium concert last year at age 35 and had a silent panic attack when I realized how truly massive the crowd was. Crowd mentality is my greatest nemesis and one of my least understood of humanities tendencies. To quote a great man: "A person is smart. People are dumb." This video was truly enlightening and I appreciate the work and dedication the team put into it. Thank you for all the work y'all do 💙

The sheer numbers involved in haj for a 1 week event is truly mind blowing, recall it being taught in numerous courses when it comes to senior level security/crowd management in the UK. We had a recent incident at the O2 Academy brixton last year too.

Since the Seoul crowd crush last year, which felt deeply personal to me due to previously experiencing frightening crowds in other youth districts of Seoul, I have taken an interest in this subject. I wonder if any research has been done on training people how to work together in a crowd crush situation, and whether that makes a difference? It seems to me that with training, the people near the center could start a simple chant (something like “Crowd crush! Turn around!”) which each subsequent section of the crowd would know to start repeating as they heard it, until it reaches the edge of the crowd who could turn around and start reducing the pressure. We all know what to do if we hear a fire alarm, we all know what to do if we see and hear emergency vehicles on the road, so surely we can get to a point where we all know what to do if a crowd gets too dense.

This video made me think of the crowds at Anime Expo 2023. There were a few times while navigating the halls a crowd crush almost happen. It was bad at the entrances and the front section for the exhibit hall because only a few doors (sometimes one door) are open for entering and exiting. It also didn't help there were huge display booths close to the doors. So crowds from people lining up to booths and entering or exiting were sometimes squished together. It was scary

The cooperation of people during a hard time really is just so true. Me and my gf were on a vacation in paris and beacuse our flight back left very early in the morning and the airport was far from paris (it was in beauvais) we decided to stay the last night on the airport because we didnt feel like spending a 200€ for only a couple of hours. We then got to the airport and there were other people there who had decided to do the same. Then late in the evening a security guard came and said that the airport is closing for the night (usually they are open 24/7). In that moment as we stepped outside into the cold and dark night together everybody started talking like what are we gonna do now. We then checked google maps and decided to walk to a mcdonalds a couple of km away that was open. Then we got there and it closed as well after a short time and they said only the drive thru is open for the night. We then just walked around as a group, talked and tried to stay warm. It was one of the most wholesome experiences of my life and when the airport finally opened again it felt like we had become good friends. It was sad when we said goodbyes and everyone went back to their own countries.

Crushes are one of the most dangerous things in the world. There are some really good channels here on KZfaq like *Plainlydifficult* and *BarelySociable* that cover the most notable and Infamous ones in great detail like a case study or literal physics lecture. Crowds are no joke, and can easily cause deaths and injury