Person after person were sucked down," Ms Faith wrote on Instagram. It was like watching a Jenga Tower topple. Once one fell, a hole opened up in the ground. "One person fell, or collapsed, it doesn't matter how it started. Once people collapse, those further back start to trample over or fall in on top of them, creating a "sinkhole of bodies" like the ones Astroworld crowds reported. People faint standing up, but can't fall to the ground to allow blood to start flowing to the brain again. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick, hot air."įactors like extreme heat can make things worse. "Breathing became something only a few were capable of.
TOWER OF TRAMPLE JESSICA FULL
If everyone has one square metre of space to themselves, the crowd flows freely across the bridge.Įven at two people per square metre, it's pretty comfortable.īut once the density of a crowd hits four people per square metre, it becomes difficult to take full paces forward.īy five people per square metre, the mood starts to change. Imagine a bridge that is funnelling a crowd towards a venue. The science of crowd crushes is frighteningly simple. So how do some become so dangerous within an instant? The science of crowd crushes Here in Australia in 2001, 16-year-old Jessica Michalik died after being crushed in the mosh at Limp Bizkit's headline set at Big Day Out - hastily arranged after Pearl Jam dropped out, devastated at the deaths of nine of their fans at Roskilde in Denmark just seven months earlier.īut millions gather without incident at countless sporting matches, religious events and music festivals every year. Thousands of pilgrims have died making their way to Mecca in multiple years since the 1990s, with many human crushes concentrated around pedestrian tunnels and bridges. Ten years later, at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, 94 Liverpool fans were crushed to death after 2,000 supporters were allowed to pile into overfull terracing pens before the match.Ĭoronial inquests found gross negligence by police was ultimately responsible for the deaths at Hillsborough, including three others who suffered for years on life support.
In 1979, 11 people died in Cincinnati, Ohio, when fans tried to force their way through glass doors into The Who's show at the Riverfront Coliseum.įans happily ran down the concrete steps toward the stage with blood on their shoes, Rolling Stone reported. In what was widely described as the worst stadium disaster in football history, more than 300 people died at a Peru vs Argentina match in Lima in 1964.Īfter spectators stormed and were attacked by police, hundreds of people trying to escape the violence were crushed when they rushed towards the exits and met corrugated steel gates. In the modern era, crushes typically happen at sporting and entertainment events and religious festivals. ( Wikimedia Commons: Le Journal Illustre) On June 16, 1883, an estimated 2,000 children crowded into a hall desperate to claim a prize. "I was walking over people I could not see breathing," she said. Eventually she goes quiet as the camera is obscured by a man's back, and then fades to black.Įight people between the ages of 14 and 27 died that night, but Gaby was not one of them.Ī male friend prised her from the crowd and threw her over a railing. As the men around her shout "help!" again and again, Gaby lets out a blood-curdling scream. The camera fogs up from the heat of the crowd. Gaby started recording from the bottom of the crush with her iPhone. "I was at the bottom, with six or seven people on top of me … there was one point where my knee popped." "I started screaming because I could not breathe," she said. ( Instagram: Gaby Simeoni)Īs the 50,000-strong crowd surged towards the stage, Gaby, who is just 147 centimetres tall, felt herself sucked into a pile of heaving bodies. Gaby Simeoni, who was caught in the surge of people at Astroworld, was saved by a male friend who pulled her over a fence.