How to Prevent Trampling Accidents

The trampling accident that occurred on the Bund, Shanghai, at midnight on December 31, 2014, shocked a lot of people. What was originally a New Year’s revelry turned into a road of no return for many people. As an Emergency Medicine Physician, apart from expressing my distress, I’d like to explain how to prevent trampling accidents to the public.

Trampling accidents generally take place in crowded places and tiny passageways, especially in places where there’s a slope, such as stairs, steps, etc. When the flow of people suddenly changes direction, someone can easily fall, causing confusion, which accelerates the crowd, which lacks knowledge of the cause of this changing pattern of movement and becomes scared – and therefore speeds up movement and leads to greater casualties. Most of the deaths caused by trampling accidents are from suffocation. If five adults are behind you and push you forward, your lungs cannot expand to complete breaths, and if the pushing lasts a few minutes, you will lose consciousness because of your brain’s lack of oxygen. If no one starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation for you at this moment, then the probability of your survival is low.

First of all, you should avoid becoming trapped in dangerous places. If you are in a crowd and cannot see or hear the police or other administrators that maintain order, and there are not enough means for people to exit, you need to be careful and leave the crowd as soon as possible.

If there are people around you that can touch you from all four directions, you must be vigilant and find a way to get out of the crowd, because once someone pushes you, you won’t be able to find enough space to adjust your steps, so you’ll easily stumble. More importantly, if you trip over, someone will quickly proceed to fall on you, and then you won’t be able to stand up or adjust your posture to protect yourself. General recommendations are moving horizontally or in a “Z” pattern away from the crowds and being careful and keeping your steps stable to avoid losing balance.

If a trampling accident has already occurred within the crowd, you will, unfortunately, have difficulty saving yourself efficiently, because most likely you will drift. If you can still keep a clear mind, you need to try your best to move horizontally and move to the other side of the crowd. If you can catch a stable fixture, such as a railing, you must try to stabilize your posture.

References:

How Not To Get Trampled at the Inauguration: Don’t go with the flow. By Amanda Ripley, Slate.com Monday, Jan. 19, 2009